The Ghana Health Service (GHS) has called on stakeholders to focus attention on the active cases of COVID-19 and not cumulative ones.

GHS director-general Dr Patrick Kuma-Aboagye mentioned that given the high recovery rates among COVID-19 patients, conversations around the virus should be focused on the decreasing trend of active cases in the country.

According to him, the country’s declining active cases compared to other countries in the region indicate that when Ghanaians continue to observe the safety protocols, Ghana can overcome the virus soon.

Ghana has confirmed 607 new COVID-19 cases pushing the country’s total case count to 27,667. The new cases which were recorded on July 16, 2020, came from samples that were taken between June 22 to 15 July, 2020. Three more deaths have also been recorded, raising the death toll to 148.

Active cases currently stand at 4,270.

Speaking at the Ministry of Information press briefing in Accra on Sunday, Dr. Kuma-Aboagye noted that “we normally don’t focus on the cumulative positive count because the majority of them have already recovered. But the more important indicator is the active cases. In Ghana today the active case trend is declining and this is very good news. Our target is to keep it declining.

What constituent the active cases? It is confirmed cases minus the recoveries and discharges including the death. So for all those who have become positive, we take out the number who have recovered or discharged and dead, and the rest is the active cases.

“That is what most countries depend on because that is what it is going to be the case burden. That is the challenge you face not the people who have recovered. In Ghana where the death rate is quite low, for example where we have about 0.654% death rate, it means that recoveries plays an active role in that because the recoveries too are high which plays an active role in what we do.”

He further indicated that in analyzing whether government is doing well in the fight against the virus in the country, there is the need to compare the country’s active cases against its confirmed cases. In this case, he mentioned since Ghana’s active cases are on the decline relative to the confirmed cases, government’s strategies in eradicating the virus is paying off.

“The rate of growth of your active case versus your confirmed cases is very important. So for example, if your number of active cases are growing faster, than your confirmed cases, it means that you are on your way to recovery. If it is the reverse, it means that you may have an increase but if you don’t have recovery at all it means that your number of burden will continue to rise.”