Accra, July 16, GNA – The Ghana Health Service (GHS) on Thursday reported 695 new positive cases of COVID-19, bringing the country’s cumulative total to 26,125.
Out of the total number of infections 22,270 have recovered and have been discharged from isolation and treatment facilities across the country, leaving 3,716 total active cases.
The death toll remains 139 constituting 0.53 per cent.
Currently 25 persons are still very ill, eight of whom had severe conditions with four on ventilators.
Dr Patrick Kuma-Aboagye, the Director-General of the Ghana Health Service, said this during an update on the country’s case count and management of COVID-19 at the Minister’s Media briefing in Accra.
He said a total of 33,491 tests have been conducted, of which 10,465 were from routine surveillance and 15,660 from contact tracing.
Dr Kuma-Aboagye said because of the previous challenges faced with the adequacy of testing kits as explained at the last update, the Service was not able to provide a daily case count of the tests.
“So what is currently being done is a seven-day moving update, which gives the real average of the cases per day,” he said.
He indicated that the figures by the close of June 2020 seemed to be on the rise, but current reports showed a rather decline in nature.
A clearer picture would further be seen when all the backlog of samples were cleared, hopefully by next weekend, he said.
Dr Kuma-Aboagye said the 695 new cases recorded came from samples collected spanning almost a three-week period from June 12 to July 12.
He said the new cases came from 52 districts across seven regions, with Greater Accra accounting for 405 from 17 districts, majority of which came from Ayawaso West.
The Ashanti Region recorded 205 new cases from 19 districts, with majority from the Kumasi Metropolis, and areas such as Kwadaso and Ashanti Mampong, while Eastern Region had 36 cases from six districts with a large number from Kwahu South.
The Regional breakdown shows that Western North had 16 new cases from two districts, while Upper West had one case from Lambusie.
However nine regions made up of Central, Upper East, North East, Northern, Savannah, Ahafo, Bono, Bono East and Oti did not record any new cases during the period under review.
Dr Kuma-Aboagye said of the 66 cases recorded from the Eastern Region eight were from New Juaben, Kwahu Afram Plains – six, Abuakwa – one, Kwahu South – 11 and Kwahu East – eight.
Western had 16 cases from Tarkwa Nsuaem and three from Wassa East.
The Volta Region had 16 new positives cases, four from Ho, with North and Central Tongu reporting four and three cases respectively, Afadjato South – two and Kpando – one.
Dr Kuma-Aboagye said of the 205 new cases from Ashanti; the Kumasi Metro accounted for 53, with 31 coming from Kwadaso, Asante Mampong – 24, Asokwa – 14, Atwima Nwabiagya -12, Asante Akyem – 13, Suame and Oforikrom each recorded 10 new infections.
Of the 16 new cases recorded in the Western North, Wiawso recorded nine and Bibiani-Ahwiaso-Bekwai seven.
He said the graphical cumulative active cases showed that Greater Accra still contributed 2,416; Ashanti-472; Central-255; Eastern-101; Northern-94; Ahafo-80; Bono East- eight; Savannah- 6; Bono-5; and North East-1.
Two regions; Upper West and Upper East presently have no active cases.
He said the hotspot areas remained the same with the Greater Accra Region contributing 55 per cent of the country’s cumulative case count, followed by Ashanti with 21 per cent, while Western and Central accounted for 8.4 and 4.3 per cent respectively.
Dr Kuma-Aboagye advised all citizens to remain vigilant and observe all the safety protocols to help slow the rate of new infections.
GNA