Vice President, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia has launched the GH COVID-19 Tracker App to help boost government’s fight against the novel coronavirus in Ghana.
The Vice President launched the App today, April 13, 2020.
The App is a user friendly and free to download mobile software application powered by the Ministry of Communication to among other things, help the government in identifying and tracing persons who have come into contact with persons infected with COVID-19.
Government says it will make the App available on Android and iOS platforms for downloads later this week.
While launching the App, Dr. Bawumia said, “It will help us easily track people with the virus, [and] those who have had contact with others. It is also useful in quarantine reliability, in case certain individuals need self-quarantine.”
He said Ghana is one of the few countries to deploy such a tracker to chase the virus. Dr. Bawumia also urged Ghanaians to utilize the App.
“We are ahead of the countries such as the USA and UK in this and we are also pursuing a strategy of aggressive testing. In terms of testing of the Coronavirus, Ghana, on the basis of the available data we have, is in the top 20 of countries in the world and on the basis of this data too, in Africa, we are number one per capita in terms of testing. In terms of numbers of tests, South Africa is number one and we are second but in terms of testing per capita in terms of testing per our population, we are leading in the continent.”
“We have tested 37,954 people and if you look at Africa alone, the data seems to show the total number of tests is under 10,000 and Ghana has tested 37,954 of the said number and we’ve increased the testing centres to six but what is significant with Ghana’s approach is we are chasing the virus and trying to get ahead of it,” he added.
ABOUT COVID-19 Tracker App
The App will help track telephone numbers of people who have recently been to certain countries around the world. The Ghana Immigration Service (GIS) will use the information to determine who to provide an extra layer of screening.
The App will also help in checking for COVID-19 symptoms and pertinent risk factors.
It will also answer COVID-19 questions as well as provide digital assistance.
Enhanced Contact Tracing
Ghana has 450 teams across the country to trace and test persons believed to come in contact with infected persons.
So far about some 37, 954 persons have been tested in Ghana, only second to South Africa with a higher number according to the Vice President, Dr. Bawumia.
COVID-19 cases in Ghana hit 566
Ghana has 566 cases of COVID-19 with eight deaths and four recoveries.
This comes after the Ghana Health Service confirmed 158 new cases on Sunday, April 12, 2020.
So far 10 out of 16 regions have recorded COVID-19 cases.
