Coronavirus: Over 19,000 contacts traced in Ghana, results of tested 15,384 people to determine future actions, President Akufo-Addo announces

According to him, the results of these traced contacts will be released next week will determine the government’s next line of action with regards to the current measures of a lockdown taken to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.

President Akufo-Addo announced this when he addressed the nation on Sunday, April 5, 2020.

He noted that the Ghana Health Service is due to receive the results of some 15,384 out of nineteen thousand, 19,276 persons who have been reached through the tracing.

“We are, thus, about to enter a critical phase of our fight in the coming week, as the Ghana Health Service is due to receive the results of some 15,384 out of nineteen thousand, 19,276 persons who have been reached through contact tracing.”

Adding that “It is the results of these tests that will determine our future course of action. Government’s policy and measures will continue to be driven by the science in this matter. The Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences and the Centre for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) are now partnering government in the struggle. I met with their representatives on Friday, and arranged with them a mechanism for the realisation of this partnership. The nation and I appreciate their involvement.”

Meanwhile, some eight hundred and four (804) persons who were mandatorily quarantined and tested on their arrival in Ghana on the 21st and 22nd of March have been released from quarantine to join their families.

“Of the one thousand and thirty (1,030) travellers, who were mandatorily quarantined and tested on their arrival in Ghana on the 21st and 22nd of March, seventy-nine (79) were initially found to be positive, and appropriate arrangements were made for their isolation and treatment. Subsequently, after twelve (12) further days of quarantine, twenty-six (26) other persons were found to be positive as a result of their second test, bringing the total number of those found to be positive to one hundred and five (105), all of whom have been isolated for treatment. Of the remaining nine hundred and twenty-five (925) persons, who have undergone two tests and found to be negative, eight hundred and four (804) have been released from quarantine to join their families.”

“The remaining one hundred and twenty-one (121) are, as I speak, in the process of being released. I want to thank all of them and their families and loved ones for their understanding and co-operation with the stringent procedures that Government was forced to deploy in the public interest,” President Akufo-Addo said.

As at 5 April 2020, Ghana had recorded 214 COVID-19 cases with five deaths.