COVID-19: 40 persons who came into contact with Obour’s father being monitored

About 40 persons are currently being monitored at Juaso in the Asante Akim South District of the Ashanti Region after a sub-chief in the area died of COVID-19 

The chief, Nana Osei Boansi Kuffour biological father of former Musician Union of Ghana (MUSIGA) President, Bice Osei Kuffuor popularly known as Obour died at the Greater Accra Regional Hospital after testing positive for Coronavirus.  

Obour, said his father travelled to the United Kingdom but initially tested positive for malaria upon his return. 

Ashanti Regional Director of the Ghana Health Service, Dr. Emmanuel Tenkorang says it is appropriate for families to give out necessary information when required to prevent such incidents.

“So far, we have identified about 40 contacts at Juaso after the confirmation that a sub-chief having lost his life due to COVID-19. All these 40 contacts are being monitored by the Asante Akim North District Health Directorate. At least, it should have alerted somebody that this person was probably a suspected case but that wasn’t the case until the situation was getting worse and the children took him to Accra at the Ridge hospital where the issue didn’t come out and he was manged at Emergency instead of Isolation. In our profession, some of these things are very important for early diagnosis and not wait for the health systems. So, I think this is a learning process we are all going through.”  

He also called on the security agencies to deal with recalcitrant residents who fail to comply with lockdown directives.

“When you go to town, you can see that the town is calm. But for me as a health care person, I am not happy at all. If you go to the markets and other high-risk areas where the people will pick the infection, they are not practising social distancing. So may we may have to strengthen whatever we are doing and I believe that, that will help.”

Contact tracing

Meanwhile Deputy Director in charge of Public Health at the Ashanti Regional Health Directorate, Dr. Yeboah Ofori wants community members to cooperate with health workers in the discharge of their duties.

“The government of Ghana through the Ministry of Health and the Ghana Health Service has supported us to recruit and train 350 contact tracing individuals so they are supporting the region with contact tracing in addition to the health workers who are supporting contact tracing activities in the region. The Ghana Health Service in the Ashanti Region has strategically identified certain locations where we are going to move from house to house and identify individuals and offer them the COVID-19 test.”