Eighty fishermen in the Central Region, who returned from their fishing expedition in neighbouring African countries, have been put under mandatory quarantine, the Ghana Health Service (GHS) disclosed on Tuesday.

Dr Akosua Owusu-Sarpong, the Central Regional Director of the GHS, at a meeting organised by the Regional Coordinating Council, said the Service was following up with contact tracing of 550 people to ensure that they did self-isolation or be quarantined.

She explained that under the circumstance, quarantine and isolation were critical in containing the disease and said such measures were to facilitate public health safety.

She said the Region had since received 273 suspected cases out of which 155 had come out negative with only one confirmed case.

She added that a confirmed case, who was diagnosed in Accra but a resident of the Region, was also being managed at a health facility in the Region.

Responding to agitations from community members against using a facility in their area as isolation centres, Dr Owusu-Sarpong explained that any facility used as a quarantine or isolation centre would be secured such that no person put there would be allowed to mingle with community members.

She appealed to all metropolitan, municipal and district chief executives to engage more with the communities to get them to understand and comply with the protocols for their own safety.

Mr Kwamena Duncan, the Central Regional Minister, bemoaned the situation where the markets and coastal communities in the Region were not observing the social distancing protocol.

He expressed regret about agitations over the decision to use some senior high schools as isolation centres saying every step being taken was in the interest of the larger population.