Coronavirus: 350 contacts traced so far in Ghana, seven confirmed patients recovering

This brings to a total of seven cases recorded so far.

A statement published on the Ghana Health Service website said the patient is a 35-year-old male Ghanaian citizen, who returned to Accra from France within the past 14 days.

The Director-General of the Ghana Health Service, Dr Patrick Kuma-Aboagye in an interview announced that out of the total of seven confirmed cases of the Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Ghana, 350 contacts have been identified as of Tuesday, March 17, 2020.

According to him, for these confirmed cases, there are still no local transmissions as of now as all the cases are imported.

A follow up for the identified contacts are still ongoing, he explained.

Dr Kuma-Aboagye further indicated that all persons who have been asked to self-isolate because they had come into contact with one of the first six patients of COVID-19 are being monitored daily for symptoms of the virus.

He explained that they are being monitored through phone calls and physical visits, adding that leaflets and other educational materials have been given to persons in isolation to which they are to strictly adhere to.

“We monitor them twice a day; morning and evening to take their temperature. We call to find out how they are doing, whether they have symptoms and all that. We also give them instructions on how to remain isolated from other people. We have given them leaflets that give them instruction on what to do,” he added.

The Health Minister, responding to question regarding the condition of the seven patients said they are recovering and will be discharged once they are cleared.

He said none of the patients had deteriorated since they were isolated and started receiving treatment.

“They are all doing very well. They are recovering because they are much better than we saw them. When they are fully off, we will let them go home. All of them are better today than they were when we saw them. We have not seen any of them deteriorating. We review them every day so based on the condition, we will discharge them once we see that they have fully recovered and cleared,” he said.

He assured that relevant stakeholders have met the Parliamentary Select Committee on health to deliberate on current progress and what the government of Ghana and the Ministry of Health and other relevant ministries, departments and agencies are doing to ensure the safety of Ghanaians with the current Covid-19 Pandemic.