Ghana's COVID-19 deaths have risen to 713 following the confirmation of eight more fatalities by the Ghana Health Service (GHS).

The latest update from the GHS further indicated that 40 people were in severe condition with 17 others in critical condition.

However, the country's active cases have declined to 3,343 from a previous 3,621 despite the confirmation of 363 new infections across the nation since the last update on Thursday, March 18, 2021.

The new infections were from tests conducted as of March 15, 2021.

The country has also recorded an additional 857 recoveries, pushing its total recoveries and discharges to 84,952 from a previous 84,095.

The remaining active cases the GHS said were being managed at treatment sites and isolation centres across the country, with some under home management.

Ghana has recorded a total of 89,008 cases of the virus since it confirmed its first two cases in March 2020.

Out of the total confirmed cases, 31,013 were from the General Surveillance; 56,712 from the Enhanced Contact Tracing, and 1,283 from international travellers disembarking at the Kotoka International Airport (KIA) since it was re-opened on September 1, 2020.

Also, 961,744 tests were conducted out of which 292,312 were from routine surveillance, 479,393 from contact tracing, and 190,039 from international travelers arriving through the KIA.

The positivity rate is 9.3 percent.

Currently, all 16 regions have an active case.

The Greater Accra Region remains the hotspot, accounting for almost 50 percent (1,663) of active cases, with a cumulative case count of 49,370

The Ashanti Region has 293 active cases with a case count of 15,177, followed by the Western Region with 166 active cases and a cumulative of 5,602.

Others are: Eastern Region, 139 active cases and 4,036 cumulative; Central Region 328 active and 3,190 cumulative; Volta Region, 176 active and 2,256 cumulative; Bono East Region 61 active and 1,316 cumulative, Northern Region 46 active and 1,576 cumulative, and Upper East Region 54 active and 1,277 cumulative.

The rest are: Western North Region, 20 active cases, 839 cumulative, Bono Region, 114 active, 1,262 cumulative, Ahafo Region, 11 active and 686 cumulative, Oti Region, 27 active and 376 cumulative, Upper West, 91 active and 456 cumulative, Savannah Region, 15 active and 112 cumulative, and North East, 36 active and 194 cumulative.

There are also 103 active cases from international travelers at the KIA.

Ghana began her mass vaccination exercise on March 2, this year after taking delivery of some 600,000 doses of Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines on February 24.

So far, a total of 405,000 people have been vaccinated against the virus as of Thursday, March 18, 2021 in the first phase in the country.

Government said it hoped to vaccinate about 20 million of the population to stem the spread of the virus.