Accra, May 10, GNA – Ghana has recorded 437 new cases for COVID-19, bringing the total case count to 4,700, with 494 recoveries.
The deaths, however, remain 22, from Saturday’s update. Five persons are critically ill but 4,179 are responding to treatment.
So far, 160,501 sample tests have been conducted.
In his ninth national broadcast on the COVID19 case management situation, on Sunday night, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo said the country’s aggressive and coordinated enhanced contact tracing, testing and treatment had largely reduced the number of infections.
“Indeed, if we have not been proactive in conducting enhanced contact tracing of infected persons, and had relied solely on testing persons who reported to the hospital, which is the practice followed by some other countries,( i.e. routine testing) our total case count would have stood at 1,413,” the President said.
” The other 3,232 i.e two-thirds of the population of positives would have been undetected and still be within the population, unknowingly infecting others,”.
He cited a scenario at Tema fishing factory where an infected worker unknowingly infected 533 of his colleagues with the virus.
“I know some political actors will want us to believe that our count numbers represent a failure of government. Do not begrudge them.They need to make such comments for their political survival,”he stressed.
On the contrary, the President said, the country’s rapid implementation of coordinated policies had resulted in low infections whilst hospitalization and death rate remained one of the lowest in Africa and the world.
” We must be doing something right in Ghana,”he added, saying that, the country had administered more tests per population than any country in Africa.
Consequently, the President announced that the World Health Organization (WHO) had reached out to the health authorities to share the sample pooling experience with other African countries so that they could also adopt the strategy and ramp up their testing capabilities.
He, therefore, underlined the need to collectively continue observing the safety and hygiene protocols as well as the social/physical distancing directives since they were the surest way to root out the pathogen.
He explained that the government’s consultation with the various organised groupings, such as labour,health, religious, creative,hospitality and educational bodies, had all given thumbs up to the aforementioned approaches towards returning to life of normalcy.
Meanwhile, President Akufo-Addo has by Executive Instrument 64, extended the ban on public gathering, including religious meetings, schools, sporting activities and bar operations until May 31,2020.
GNA