The coronavirus (Covid-19) infection rate in the country appears to be reaching its peak, Dr. Badu Sarkodie, Director Public Health, Ghana Health Service (GHS), has said.
Answering a question on Covid-19 infection rate yesterday, Dr. Sarkodie said “clearly we seem to be, as a country, on top of the peak and we are at a stage to decline; that is the observation now.”
Explaining how the GHS arrived at the curve, Dr. Sarkodie said, ideally, the best way to assess the curve is by using the daily case incidence, which means the tracking of the number of cases recorded per day, to pick the trend.
He said the next best data for the chart is the date of onset of the symptoms. “If you don’t have that, the next line will be the date when the patients were first seen at the facility and the next is the date the sample was taken,” he added.
Dr. Sarkodie said the GHS was using the data from the date the samples were tested to monitor the trend.
However, he was quick to add that such decline can only be maintained if Ghanaians persist in adhering to the preventive protocols.
Cases Management
On May 4, Ghana recorded its highest number of confirmed Covid-19 cases of 550 new infections to 2,719 since the first case was recorded on March 12.
The Director General of the GHS, Dr. Patrick Kuma Aboagye, said of the new figures recorded, 919 were from the routine surveillance, 1,685 from the enhanced contact tracing and testing being done in Kumasi and Accra and 115 from the mandatorily quarantined travellers.
He explained that most of the new cases were reported in 24 out of 26 districts in the Greater Accra Region.
Dr. Aboagye further stated that 2,402 of the 2,719 cases are responding to treatment, seven are in moderate to critical condition and 18 people have lost their lives due to the viral infection.
Per the figures, Ghana is said to have a national positivity rate of 2.01 per cent and a mortality rate of 0.66 per cent, meaning that Covid-19 is highly infectious, but its death rate remains low.
Recoveries
The number of recoveries in the country hit 294 after 65 more patients tested negative for Covid-19 the second time in the latest case update.
Dr. Aboagye also announced that 200 more patients who have undergone treatment for Covid-19 were awaiting their second test results to be confirmed fully recovered from the infection.
More Tests
The GHS Director General said 129,461 tests had been done, including the 18,000 backlog at the Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research (NMIMR).
He said the Kumasi Centre for Collaborative Research (KCCR) has a backlog of 1,982 samples to be tested.
Professor William Ampofo, Head of the Virology Department at NMIMR, said the KCCR backlog is expected to be cleared by May 7 and additional testing centres coming to be able to release results within 24 hours.
He also hinted that the GHS was working with the health directorate in the Western Region to establish another testing centre at the Veterinary Service Department in Takoradi and the Afia Nkwanta Hospital.
“Looking at the testing centres by the end of May, we can have every region testing for Covid-19,” he said.
Isolation
Some 453 persons who have tested positive for Covid-19 but are asymptomatic are in isolation centres across the country.
Dr. Aboagye disclosed that 339 are in isolation in Accra, with 85 in the Eastern Region and nine in the Ashanti Region.
By Jamila Akweley Okerchiri