The cases of coronavirus, COVID-19, have risen steadily in Ghana as the Ghana Health Service has confirmed 24 cases and more cases are expected to be announced as the days go by.
As of Monday, the entire country has recorded 24 cases with citizens speculating that the number could increase owing to the plot released by the government on the number of people who came into contact with the index cases.
So far, one death has been recorded in the country.
The Parliament on Friday passed a bill to help manage the situation, a bill which has been opposed by the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) party leadership.
Meanwhile, Ghanaian citizens have expressed their willingness to go into a temporary self-imposed lockdown to help minimise the spread of the pandemic.
James Anto Mensah, a trader in Accra, noted that, “the rate at which cases are recorded in Accra, and now in Kumasi, it will be better for us to be disciplined and quarantine ourselves before issues get out of hand”.
“Among the confirmed cases, 17 are of Ghanaian nationality and seven other nationals namely: Norway, Lebanon, China, France, UK,” the GHS said in its update.
One person has died from the disease in Ghana; a Kumasi-based Lebanese trader.
According to the health officials, the 61-year-old had “underlying chronic pulmonary condition prior to having COVID-19”.
The report of the GHS, as of 22 March 2020, 14:00 Hr. a total of 315 suspected cases have been tested for COVID-19 by Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research (NMIMR) and Kumasi Centre for Collaborative Research (KCCR).
Twenty-four (24) of these have been confirmed at the laboratory as COVID-19. Twenty-three of the confirmed cases are receiving treatment in isolation and one (1) of the cases who had underlying chronic pulmonary condition prior to having COVID-19 has died.
Among the confirmed cases, seventeen (17) are of Ghanaian nationality and seven (7) other nationals namely: Norway, Lebanon, China, France, UK.
With regards to contact tracing, a total of 575 contacts have been identified and are being tracked.
One (1) of the contacts developed symptoms and has been confirmed positive.
All the other twenty-three (23) confirmed cases are being managed in isolation and are doing well on treatment.
DAP/GIK/APA