The Ghana Health Service is to commence a mass sample collection exercise to test over 2,000 persons suspected of COVID-19 in the Upper West Region.
The number includes some contact persons who were traced to confirmed COVID-19 cases and travellers from outside Ghana who came into the region.
It also involves persons who visited health facilities in the region with complaints that are coterminous with the case definition for the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Upper West Regional Health Director, Dr. Osei Kuffuor Afreh who disclosed this in an interview with Citi News said the mass testing has become necessary because some seven confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the area have moved the region from a low to medium-risk region.
“More than 2,000 persons have entered our low-risk system and put us into medium risk so possibly from Tuesday, April 14, 2020, we will be doing some mass sample collection exercise and further testing of all the 2,000 persons.”
The Upper West Region currently has one confirmed case of COVID-19 in the region.
Ghana’s confirmed cases of COVID-19
Ghana has 566 cases of COVID-19 with eight deaths and four recoveries.
So far ten out of 16 regions have recorded COVID-19 cases.