Health News of Tuesday, 16 March 2021

Source: GNA

Coronavirus: Ghana records nearly 2,000 new infections in three days

Novel Coronavirus Novel Coronavirus

The Ghana Health Service (GHS) has for the third straight update announced that the country has recorded more than 600 new daily infections of the Coronavirus.

The country's health management body on Friday, January 23, confirmed 635 new cases of infections barely 24 hours after it had announced 658 new infections across eight regions on Thursday, January 22, 2021.

The confirmation of 679 new infections in GHS’ latest update, therefore, brings the country's new cases in the last three updates to 1,972. The latest infections, confirmed in eight regions were from tests conducted as at January 20, 2021.

The latest infections also bring the country's active cases to 3,286 from a previous 2,799.

Unfortunately, six more persons have succumbed to the disease since the last update, raising the death toll also to 367 from a previous 361.

So far, a total of 57,141 patients have clinically recovered from the disease and been discharged.

Seventy-one of the active cases, it said, are in severe conditions, with 36 in critical condition. The active cases, the update said, are being managed in treatment sites, isolation centres across the country, while some were under home management.

Ghana has so far recorded 60,794 cases of the virus since it confirmed its first two cases in March 2020.

Out of the total confirmed cases, 23,703 were from the General Surveillance; 36,033 cases from the Enhanced Contact Tracing, while 1,058 have been recorded from international travellers disembarking at the Kotoka International Airport since it was reopened on September 1, 2020, the update stated.

So far, a total of 735,234 tests have been conducted. Out of this, 229,722 are from routine surveillance, 364,738 from contact tracing, and 140,774 from international travellers arriving through the Kotoka International Airport.

The positivity rate is 8.3 per cent.

The Greater Accra and the Ashanti Regions continue to be the epicentre of the virus in the country with cumulative cases of 34,740 and 11,687 respectively.

The rest are: Western Region- 3,270 Eastern Region – 2,704 Central Region- 2,215 Volta Region – 848 Bono East Region – 796 Western North Region – 689 Bono Region- 645 Northern Region – 620 Ahafo Region- 537 Upper East Region – 502 Oti Region- 244 Upper West Region – 152 Savannah Region – 62 North East Region -25