The Ghana Health Service says it has detected a wide community spread of the mutated variants of COVID-19 which originated from the United Kingdom (UK).

With a higher rate of spread and an increased level of severity in sickness, the Ghana Health Service has warned Ghanaians to observe strictly all health safety protocols to minimize the risk of contracting the virus.

Speaking at a media briefing on Tuesday, February 3, 2020, the Director-General of GHS, Dr. Patrick Kuma Aboagye indicated that in 2020 when the original variant was in the country only 21% of infected persons were getting sick.

Dr Aboagye, however, states that the percentage has now increased to 32% since the introduction of the UK variant into the country.

He said the service after recording the South African variant among travellers at the Kotoka International Airport, stepped up surveillance in local communities and identified the spread of the new variants.

To battle the new wave of infections, the Ghana Health Service has intensified among other things its contact tracing efforts and has increased the daily testing of suspected cases to 3,500.

Ghana is currently experiencing a new wave of COVID-19 infections which has seen the countries numbers spiking daily.

The daily number of infections within weeks has moved from around 200 to 700.

The cumulative number of confirmed cases is now 67,782 with 61,843 declared recovered whilst 424 of the infected persons have died.

The current number of active cases currently stands at 5,515.