By Ayuure Kapini
If the spike of the Covid-19 pandemic continues in Ghana as the cases have now risen to a total of 834, President Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo is very likely to extend the partial lockdown via an announcement on 18 April or tomorrow Sunday.
The Coronavirus disease cases have 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.
“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%.
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. 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.
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.
