By Ayuure Kapini
Ghana’s Covid-19 cases have increased to 1,042, a 1.5 percentage of about 68,591 samples tested, with 99 persons recovering after contracting the disease. Nine persons have died from the coronavirus pandemic. About 18,000 people are to be tested for Covid-19.
President Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo revealed this in a national address on the regular Covid-19 update yesterday night in which he lifted the three week-long partial lockdown imposed on the Greater Accra Metropolitan Area and peri-urban Kasoa in the Awutu Senya Municipality in the Central Region, and the Kumasi Metropolis and some of its municipalities and districts in a bid to contain the spread of the coronavirus. The lifting of the partial lockdown takes place at 1am on April 20.
President Akufo-Addo said all other directives such as the ban on public gatherings and the observing of Covid-19 protocols are to be observed as before the lifting of the partial lockdown. In his seventh update Covid-19 to Ghanaians, he warned that the lifting of the ban does not mean the fight against the pandemic is over.
The review of the situation of the pandemic was guided by the data and science available on Ghana’s specific cases he said. He stated: “The main reason our country has seen an increase in the number of confirmed cases over the last three weeks is because of the decision we took aggressively to trace and test contacts of infected persons.
“This has enabled us to identify and isolate infected persons, protect the population from further infections, and contain better the spread of the virus. Indeed, Ghana is the only other country in Africa to have conducted more than sixty thousand tests, and we are ranked number one in Africa in administering of tests per million people. The decision to impose restrictions on movement was backed by the data at hand, and our next course of action, again, is backed by data and by science. Indeed, all that Government is doing is intended to achieve five (5) key objectives – limit and stop the importation of the virus; contain its spread; provide adequate care for the sick; limit the impact of the virus on social and economic life; and inspire the expansion of our domestic capability and deepen our self-reliance.”
“Whenever the situation so warrants”
Some parts of Ghana could return to a lockdown “whenever the situation so warrants,” President Akufo Addo said. “It is important to stress strongly that coming out of the partial lockdown in Accra and Kumasi does not mean we are out of the pandemic,” he said. “We will continue to monitor closely events in some hotspots in the Greater Accra Metropolitan Area like Weija Gbawe, Ga East, and Ayawaso East Municipalities, and Tema Metropolis, and in the Eastern Region, like Asuoygaman and Lower Manya Krobo Districts.
“Whenever the situation so warrants, a community in which the virus is identified as becoming prevalent will be locked-down until there is a clear understanding of the trajectory of the virus that will allow us to contain it.”
The president said the ease of restrictions was “in view of our ability to undertake aggressive contact tracing of infected persons,” among others.
On 18 April the Coronavirus disease cases jumped by 193 new cases, bringing the total number to 834. The Ghana Health Service (GHS) stated that 16 more people who have overcome the Coronavirus have been discharged to their homes, bringing to total 99 recoveries. One death was recorded, making a total of nine. According to a GHS report released today, the new figures are part of the completion of a backlog of laboratory samples picked up for testing as part of the COVID-19 testing exercise. 
The government declared a two-week partial lockdown in the Greater Accra Metropolitan Area and peri-urban Kasoa in the Awutu Senya Municipality in the Central Region, and the Kumasi Metropolis and some of its municipalities and districts on 27 March which took effective on 30 March. On 9 April, speaking to the nation in his 6th address since the outbreak of the pandemic, President Akufo-Addo extended the partial lockdown by a week. The expected announcement will be the President’s seventh address to the nation on the virus disease.
“Some 57,000 samples already successfully tested as at April 15th 2020. In the first batch of this backlog, an additional 198 have been found to be positive. This will bring Ghana’s total case count to 834 at the moment. The general public is however advised that this does not represent new infections that are occurring. It represents results from tests of a backlog of samples,” the GHS stated. Commentators, however, refuse to accept the GHS position that the new cases do not represent an increment.
Large number of samples
“The laboratories have been working day and night to test this large number of samples. Hopefully in the next few days, all the testing would be completed. Total samples tested so far now stands at 60, 916 with 1.37 % testing positive. The results of these backlog of samples when released does not mean the number of new cases recorded on the day of the report,” the report stated.
“Total samples tested so far now stands at 60, 916 with 1.37 % testing positive,” it added. The data indicate that the community base spread of the pandemic is now 77%.
According to the GHS, as at 14 April, a total of 50,719 persons have been tested, with 641 being positive for COVID-19 and eight deaths in Ghana.
At present, Greater Accra Region, the hardest hit, recorded 685 cases while Ashanti Region has 59, Eastern Region 51 and Northern Region 11. Volta Region recorded nine cases, Upper West and Upper East regions have eight cases apiece, and one each for the North East, Western and Central regions. Regions which are unaffected by the pandemic are Savannah, Bono, Bono East, Oti, Ahafo and Western North.
On 18 April, confirmed coronavirus cases in Africa are 20,036, and recovered cases are 4,654; while confirmed coronavirus deaths hit 1,022, according to the Switzerland-based World Health Organization (WHO); Johns Hopkins University of Medicine in the United States (US); and nCoV. These figures do not include Ghana’s latest cases update. South Africa has the largest number of cases in sub-Saharan Africa.
