Ghana’s COVID-19 case count yesterday increased to 3,091 with the Bono Region joining the league of regions with confirmed cases.
The case which was detected in the Jaman North District of the region leaves the country with three regions yet to be struck by the virus namely the Savannah, Ahafo and Bono East.
Per a latest update from the Ghana Health Service (GHS) website, 303 persons infected with the disease have recovered, with the number of deaths, at 18.
Giving further details at a press briefing in Accra yesterday, Director General of the GHS, Dr Patrick Kuma-Aboagye disclosed that of the new cases recorded, 248 came from the Greater Accra region which leads with 2,579 cases now.
The cases were confirmed in districts including the Accra Metropolitan, Korle Klottey, Ablekuma South, and Ashaiman municipalities, among others.
At least, 124 others were identified in other regions including the Eastern, Central and Western with five people said to be in critical condition.
Dr Kuma-Aboagye indicated that 2,332 of the country’s total tally had come from contact tracing, 944 from routine surveillance and 115 from persons who were held under mandatory quarantine.
He explained that of the 18 deaths recorded in the country, 76 per cent were males and 23, females, indicating that majority of the casualties involved persons above age 60.
“Four of them are within the 40 to 59 age bracket, two between 25 and 39, one within 15 to 25 and one, less than 15 years.”
He was quick to add however that the deaths had come about as a result of some underlying medical conditions among patients, citing hypertension as the highest cause among others like liver disease, asthma and stroke.
The Director General pointed out that the country now has 37 treatment centres for managing the pandemic with close to 450 patients in various isolation centres.
As regards the recoveries, Dr Kuma-Aboagye maintained that Ghana’s conditions for determining that someone was recovering was the “highest bar,” saying, “there are some countries that once you test negative once, you are discharged but we test you twice and when you come out negative in all instances, then we say you have recovered.”
Reassuring the citizenry that COVID-19 was not a “death sentence,” the Director General encouraged all and sundry to continue to adhere to all the preventive protocols to avoid contracting the virus.
“We are coming out with guidelines for people like the barbers and hairdressers and other persons in the informal sector on how they can carry themselves to avoid being infected.”
Global COVID-19 confirmed cases have crossed three million as recoveries hit more than one million with about 260,000 deaths.
BY ABIGAIL ANNOH