Coronavirus: All patients in Upper East recovered and discharged

Dr Josephat Nyuzaghl, the Upper East Deputy Regional Director of the Ghana Health Service (GHS) in charge of Public Health, has said all 279 COVID-19 patients in the Region have been treated and discharged from the various health facilities.

According to him, all COVID-19 patients had fully recovered, adding that “As we speak, we don’t have any case in our treatment centre, there is no case that is currently being managed at home.”

Dr Nyuzaghl disclosed this when he presented an overview of the COVID-19 situation in the Region at a media and stakeholder meeting in Bolgatanga.

He explained that out of the 282 COVID-19 recorded cases in the Region, 11 were health professionals, two died at the Bawku Municipality and one patient absconded.

He said there were however few samples pending at the Public Health Reference Laboratory, and the Directorate was expecting results of the samples soon.

Dr Nyuzaghl said over 90 per cent of the cases were from the Police Training School at Pwalugu in the Talensi District of the Region, with most of the victims recruits not from the Region.

He indicated that the ages of victims were between 15 to 34 years, “In terms of sex distribution, majority of the cases were females, 54 per cent of them are females and about 46 per cent are males.”

“These are basically the youth, which means that we have to concentrate a lot in our health promotion activities and health education programmes, targeting this age group so that they can take up the COVID-19 protocol measures seriously,” Dr Nyuzaghl said.

The Deputy Director cautioned that even though the Region had no COVID-19 patients, the virus was still in the Region and urged residents to continue to adhere to the GHS protocols, especially wearing of the face masks and keeping social distancing.

He said most of the confirmed cases of the virus were recorded in the first week of June.

Giving the case distribution by Districts as at July 21, Dr Nyuzaghl said the Bolgatanga Municipality recorded 24 cases, Bawku five cases, and the Kassena-Nankana Municipality recorded three, Talensi 245, while Bongo, Builsa North, Bawku West, Binduri and Pusiga Districts all recorded a case each.

The rest of the Districts, he said, had not recorded any confirmed cases even though they had several samples pending.

According to Dr Nyuzaghl, “For every confirmed case, it has the potential to generate two and a half cases in five days, and the two and half cases have the potential to produce about 406 cases in 30 days, that is if you don’t put in place any social distancing arrangements.”

He reiterated that one case could spread to about 406 persons in one month but with effective social distancing, it could reduce the risk of transmission, “The risk is not completely eliminated in social distancing but at least it reduces the number of cases that a case can generate.”

The Deputy Director emphasized that apart from the social distancing protocol, it was critical for residents of the Region to continue to strictly adhere to all the prescribed protocols to ensure a complete COVID-19 free society.