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Dr Patrick Kuma-Aboagye, Director-General, Ghana Health Service (GHS), on Thursday, said Ghana has 1,723 active cases of COVID-19, from the cumulative of 43,260 positives since the outbreak of the pandemic.
He said the present record, represented the lowest since Ghana’s COVID-19 records began, explaining that although the cumulative of the positive cases may seem high, there had been 41,279 recoveries and discharges, representing a 95 per cent recovery rate, which was a positive sign.
Dr Kuma-Aboagye, however said there had been 261 deaths so far, with the case fatality rate currently at about 0.6 per cent, and called on all Ghanaians to comply with all the preventive and safety protocols, particularly, regular hand washing with soap under running water, and the proper wearing of nose masks.
Dr Kuma-Aboagye, gave the update and advice at the Ministry of Information’s press briefing in Accra, where he stated that Ghana had tested 431,272 individuals so far, from which, 157,283 came from Routine surveillance, and 273,989 from Enhanced Contact Tracing, leading to an average total positivity rate of about 10 per cent.
He said there had been a constant decline in the number of active cases since July, but then, 166 new cases of COVID-19, were recorded within the period under review, and these came from 24 districts across five regions, meaning that 11 regions, despite taking samples and testing, did not record any new case.
However, in the hotspot areas such as Greater Accra and Ashanti, prevalence still remained within the metros and their environs.
He said the Greater Accra for instance, recorded 76 positives with majority of the cases coming from Ayawaso West and Korley Clottey districts, where the hotels hosting returnees were cited, and this explained the high numbers compared to the other districts.
The Eastern Region recorded 48 new cases from 10 districts, majority from Abuakwa North and Atiwa East, while Ashanti had 27 fresh cases from four districts, mainly from the Kumasi Metro.
Northern Region had eight cases from Tamale, Tatale and Sanguri, while Western Region had seven new cases from Efia Kwesimintim, Takoradi and Tarkwa Nsuaem.
Dr Kuma-Aboagye said Greater Accra, Ashanti, Eastern, Central and Western, remained predominant with high number of positives.
The larger number of active cases currently existed in the Ashanti Region which still had 432, Eastern with 264, Central-259 and Greater Accra with 533, still the lowest ever active cases reported from these areas, he said.
Dr Kuma-Aboagye said the Upper East and West, North East and the Savannah regions did not report any cases over the period, but Northern recorded five cases, while Bono had one positive.
Other regions that also recorded active cases were the Bono East 40, Oti 25, Volta 30, Western 68, Western North 22, and Ahafo 44.
He also showed a slide by dates, indicating that the number of deaths peaked towards the end of May and June, 2020, but since then no deaths had been recorded until the last single case on August 13, 2020.
He said gains achieved so far were due to the health sector’s response in terms of contact tracing, containment and isolation, as well as government’s support to cushion these efforts, but stressed on compliance with all the protocols to sustain them.
