General News of Wednesday, 1 April 2020

Source: mynewsgh.com

Expect a big jump in Ghana’s coronavirus cases – Dr. Michael Owusu

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Virologist with the Kumasi Centre for Collaborative Research (KCCR), Dr. Michael Owusu has noted that considering Ghana’s current statistics, breakdown and the strategies undertaken so far, there will be a significant jump in the number of COVID-19 cases in the next one or two weeks if nothing significant changes.

“The virus has a reproductive number of 2.5 to 3 so it grows exponentially. And the exponential growth depends on the multiple number of contracts we have. So what I expect is that if nothing changes and things move on as it is, there is still multiple number of contacts happening then you expect a big jump and it will happen in the next one to two weeks,” he explained in an interview monitored by MyNewsGh.com

He added that the current death of 2.2 percent does not really represent the real situation on the ground since the true number of infected persons is yet to be ascertained.

“The death rate that we have set at 2.2 percent, I think it is too early. When the hospitals are overwhelmed, when we have sections full of patients, when you think that things are already exhausted that’s when you can actually measure the prevalence of death,” he explained.

Ghana’s COVID-19 cases currently stand at 161.

As at March 31, 2020, nine (9) new cases of COVID-19 have been reported from NMIMR since the last update on March 30, 2020. All nine (9) were reported from Accra, three (3) of them travelled to Ghana within the past 14 days from Germany, France and Hungary respectively but for six (6) of them have no history of travelling outside.