The Director-General of the Ghana Health Service, Dr. Patrick Kuma-Aboagye has advised Ghanaians to focus on the active cases of COVID-19 rather than the cumulative cases.
With 4,270 active cases, Ghana’s total case count stands at 27,667 as of Sunday, July 20, 2020.
The new cases which were recorded on July 16, 2020, came from samples that were taken between June 22 to 15 July, 2020.
The number of recoveries/discharges is at 23,249.
Speaking to the press on Sunday, Dr. Kuma-Aboagye said the current situation is not indicative that the disease burden has overwhelmed Ghana’s health care system.
“In total, we have 4,270 cases as of now. That means, if you compare it to the 27,000 plus cases, it means that we have a relatively lower burden to deal with. We have 299 of these cases in treatment centres that have over 700 beds. So at this stage, one cannot say the system is choked. If there are 299 and now there are an additional 400 cases, can the health system hold it? Yes, it can. So of course, we are not overwhelmed in terms of active cases. So for me, this is where we must focus our attention on”, he said.
At the same encounter, Information Minister, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah discredited the claim that the government’s COVID-19 response strategy has failed.
Oppong Nkrumah at the press conference, said statistics have revealed the successes that have emerged from the government’s measures to contain the virus.
“This year is an election year, there is a lot of politics in the atmosphere so you will find some persons deliberately seeking to contort the analysis of the data, seeking to claim that the COVID-19 response is a failure but the devil is in the details. If you look at the detail of the numbers that are coming out, you can clearly tell the successes that are coming out.”
COVID-19 recovery rates not an excuse to be reckless – Oppong Nkrumah
The Minister said, although the country had recorded significant strides in the fight against COVID-19, it is imperative for Ghanaians to continually abide by the safety protocols to curtail the spread of the virus.
“What we need to reiterate is that people should not take solace in improving numbers to be reckless. We need to maintain our vigilance so that we can continue our proven track record.”
Mr. Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, the Minister of Information, on Sunday urged the public to adhere strictly to the COVID-19 preventive measures despite the high number of recoveries.
“We caution the general public not to use the improving recovery numbers and the declining active case numbers as a reason to be reckless,” he said.
