It came mostly as a surprise to may folks when the President of Ghana on the 19th of April, 2020 in his State of the Nation Address which has he has been giving at regular intervals to inform the citizenry about COVID19 case and how its been handled, informed the public that the lockdown which was imposed on the two hot spot regions; Greater Accra and Greater Kumasi Regions were lifted. According to the President Ghana has conducted 68,591 tests out of which 67,549 had tested negative with 1042 being positive as at the time of the address. This indicated that we are doing more or the most in the whole of Africa in staying ahead of the virus, also our enhanced contact tracing system which was adopted earlier at the start of the outbreak has proven that Ghana can handle the virus in quickly locating and isolating potential individuals who could test positive now or later, thus clearly the decision is backed by scientific facts. Irrespective of this however, public gatherings are still banned, the boarders will remained closed until further notice and social distancing protocols are strongly supposed to be adhered to. Individuals who has to go out of their homes are well advised to adopt the use of the nose masks and hand sanitizers as often as possible.
He also announced that the country is going to increase the production of locally made PPEs a thousand fold, in addition nose masks will also be available for public purchase to help combat the virus. From the epidemiologist point of view calculations may indicate that Ghana is containing the Virus well, no information has come from WHO as to this however let me share this with you. So based on the information Total tested was 68,591, Total Negative was 67,529 and Total Positive 1042. Sensitivity which is a measure of people who actually have the disease also known as True Positive by calculation gives 1.5%. Specificity which measures people who truly do not have the disease otherwise also known as True Negative gives 98.5% by calculation. Now the prevalence on the case is quite low, this is known by the number of cases of the disease present in the population at a particular time. Low prevalence has a positive relationship with the probability of the one getting the disease thus it is positive marker or indicator that we are containing the condition. Either way, lots of critics also says that the decision is premature and that many are being put in harms way. We continue to hope for the best as the country continues to battle this pandemic.
As at today the total number of cases continue to remain at 1042 with 82% been locally acquired and the rest with a known travel history. The males continue to dominate at 60% with females at 40%. The backlog of test yet to be completed are still been overseen by the Ghana Health Service. The cases are evenly distributed among the age groups from children to the aged and regions with confirm cases remain Greater Accra (882), Ashanti(62), Eastern(51), Northern(11), Volta(10),Upper West regions(8), Upper East(8), Central(7), North East(2) and Western(1).
In Other News Meningitis outbreak continues to be on the loss claiming about 40 lives with over 400 people infected. The strain detected is X variance of the N. Meningitidis bacteria which have no vaccine approved for its treatment making it a headache to treat. The regions with reported cases are the northern and upper east regions. Chiefs have started calling upon the government for help as philantropists starts to make donations to hospitals in affected area to help combat this disease too.
Summary
Total Cases: 1042
Recovered: 99
Responding to Treatment: 930
Critical Condition: 4
Deaths: 9
source
Continue to Stay at home, wash your hands frequently with soap, use alcohol based hand sanitizers as often as you can and report and symptoms of dry cough, fever and difficulty breathing to the nearest healthcare facility, Stay 2 meters or more away from others and stay healthy, a stronger immmune system is needed to fight this disease.