Thirty-one of the 152 persons who have contracted the deadly coronavirus (COVID-19) disease and receiving care at various health facilities in the country have been treated and discharged, Health Minister, Kwaku Agyeman-Manu, has disclosed.
They would, however, be observed from their homes for at least two weeks, Mr Agyeman-Manu added.
Speaking with the media after receiving some items from the Ghana Cocoa Board in Accra yesterday, Mr Agyeman-Manu said the discharged were expected to self isolate upon reaching home.
According to him, before releasing them, health professionals assessed the homes of the discharged to ensure that they were fit for self isolation.
To be sure that they were fully healed of the coronavirus disease, Mr Agyeman-Manu, MP, Dormaa Central, said the discharged were tested multiple times and all the results proved negative.
“We tested them between three to four times and the results proved negative but as we discharge them, it does not mean that they could just go and start mixing with people in the community. They are expected to self isolate for at least two weeks.
“As of Monday, only one person was treated and discharged from Kumasi,” he revealed.
Ghana, at the time of filing this report, has recorded 161 cases of COVID-19 in Accra, Tema, Obuasi, and Kumasi with five deaths.
In order to stop the spread of the respiratory disease which has attacked more than 700,000 people globally, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, pursuant to the Imposition of Restrictions Act 2020, Act 1012 imposed a partial lockdown on Accra, Tema, Kasoa and Kumasi for an initial period of two weeks.
Residents of the areas, however, have been reported to be trying to outwit the system to skip the lockdown areas raising fears that they could be transporting the disease to other parts of the country.
This, Mr Agyeman-Manu said, does not auger well for the fight against the disease had left more than 35,000 people dead worldwide.
“This is not the time to be recalcitrant. Do not try to leave the lockdown zones. Stay where you are.
“We are chasing the virus so do not aid in spreading it. If you go out there and you get it, your wife will get it and your children would also be infected.
“So stay home and do not go out there if you don’t have any essential thing to do so that you don’t go and contract the disease out there and infect your innocent wife or husband and children,” he advised.
Government, he said, would do anything possible, logistically and financially to stem the spread of the virus.
BY JULIUS YAO PETETSI
