Ghana's Coronavirus cases hit 9

Information minister Kojo Oppong Nkrumah has announced the country has confirmed two more cases of Coronavirus bringing the total number of confirmed cases in the country to nine (9).

“Unfortunately we have confirmed two more cases overnight. Ghana’s case count is now at 9. Health services are still managing all suspected and confirmed cases well,” his tweet a

Read full articlewhile ago read.

The Ghana Health Service on its website reports that the two new cases were imported.

"On the 18th March, we received another report from NMIMR indicating two (2) more confirmed cases from the Greater Accra Region. Both are imported cases. One is a 56-year-old man, a Ghanaian who travelled back to Accra from a trip to UK about a week ago. The other is a 33-year-old Ghanaian, who returned to Accra from a conference in UAE. Both cases are receiving treatment in isolation.

"This brings to a total of nine (9) confirmed COVID-19 cases. There is no death. On contact tracing, a total of 399 contacts have been identified and are being followed up. Nineteen (19) of the contacts developed some forms of symptoms and samples have taken for laboratory testing. We have received results for 15 of them which are all negative for COVID-19 and we are awaiting results for four (4) of them. Currently, there is no death and all the nine (9) confirmed COVID-19 cases are being managed in isolation and are responding well to treatment."

At a press conference Wednesday evening, Mr. Oppong Nkrumah said health experts had told government officials that the next two weeks will be critical in Ghana's fight against the deadly coronavirus pandemic.

He said: "the health experts tell us that the next two weeks are going to be critical in determining whether or not we are going to get significant community spread. They tell us that the general theory pandemic management is that often it is likely the numbers go up a bit before it curves or the situation gets better.

"Therefore, they are bracing for the possibility of some limited recordings of more cases in the medium term but they continue to assure us that the systems they are putting together and continue to ramp-up are such that we will be able to contain it and hold this virus in check."

Oppong Nkrumah affirmed the government's commitment in ensuring the safety of every citizen by ensuring that all the measures put in place to stop the spread of the virus are adhered to.

At the briefing, it was revealed that the travel ban imposed on person's coming from countries that have recorded more than 200 cases of the disease is in full force.

This ban has led to several persons returned to their places of embarkation upon arrival in Ghana.

Covid-19 Update
Unfortunately we have confirmed two more cases overnight. Ghana’s case count is now at 9. Health services are still managing all suspected and confirmed cases well.

— Kojo Oppong Nkrumah (@konkrumah) March 19, 2020