Ghana’s COVID-19 recovery count nearly tripled from 674 to 1,754, over the weekend as 1,080 additional patients were declared free of the virus by the Ghana Health Service (GHS).
An extra 205 infections were also recorded in the country during the same period, shooting the case count to 5,735 while the associated deaths rose to 29 following the demise of five more patients.
Per the GHS situation update, 3,906 of the 5,735 cases were from enhanced contact tracing, 1,714 from general surveillance, and 115 from mandatory quarantine cases at Tamale and Accra.
According to the GHS portal, a total of 174,077 tests had been conducted on 173,096 people out of which 126,845 from contract tracing, 45,210 were from routine surveillance, and 2,022 from mandatory quarantine.
Of those that have tested positive to the virus, 3, 906 were from contact tracing; 1,714 from routine surveillance and 115 from mandatory quarantine, meaning that contact tracing was helping discover more infected persons.
Count of cases per regions shows that Greater Accra accounted for more than 50 per cent of the cases with the figure at 4,314; followed by Ashanti with 818; Central, 210; Eastern 99; Western 98; Western North 57; Volta 34; Northern 31; Upper East 26; Oti Region 24; Upper West 21 ; North East , two and Bono, one.
Savannah, Ahafo and Bono regions, remained COVID-19 free.
Ghana recorded its first COVID-19 case in March this year, recorded its first two cases, about three months after the first global cases was recorded in China in December 2019.
Meanwhile CLEMENT ADZEI BOYE, reports from TAKORADI that COVID-19 cases in the Western Region has hit the three digits mark as positive cases increased from 87 to 101 at the weekend.
This shows an increase of 14 new positive COVID -19 cases recorded in the region.
Again, the region has recorded 113 new suspected cases of the corona virus, the Regional Situation Report (SITREP) dated May 16 and edited by the Western Regional Director of Health, Dr Jacob Mahama and his team reported.
So far, the updated report showed a total cumulative suspected cases 867, cumulative specimen collected 2,519; total negative cases, 456; total pending results, 310; total new contacts listed, 2,214; total contacts listed, 4,148 and total contacts traced,2,915, while total deaths and recovered cases are one each.
The district distribution indicates that Sekondi -Takoradi has the highest COVID-19 cases of 218 followed by Tarkwa-Nsuaem, 100, Shama, 92; Effia -Kwesimintsim,91; Ellembelle, 88; Ahanta West, 64; Prestea-Huni Valley, 62, with Wassa East recording the least cases of seven.
Meanwhile, earlier SITREP, dated May 12, also spoke about eight cases, that is about 13. 1 percent representing health workers.
The report announced that the regional veterinary laboratory was processing all samples now, and explained that “the region still has backlog of samples awaiting testing at Nogochi in Accra and Kumasi Centre for Collaborative Research in Tropical Medicine (KCCR) in Kumasi”.
BY JONATHAN DONKOR
