Ghana globally celebrated in COVID-19 fight — Dr Dacosta Aboagye
Ghana is being globally celebrated for the measures it has put in place in the fight against the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic.
The country has been identified among five others with the most innovative and effective plans in the management of the pandemic.
Advertisement
This was confirmed by the Chairman of Risk Communication and social mobilisation committee for Ghana’s COVID-19 Response team, Dr Dacosta Aboagye, who joined a Deputy Minister of Health, Dr Bernard Okoe Boye, to participate in a virtual meeting of WHO Africa held by Webinar last Wednesday.
The meeting was addressed by the WHO Africa Representative, Dr Matshidiso Moeti, and had African Health ministers or their representatives and major stakeholders in attendance.
Commendation
According to Dr Aboagye, Ghana was being celebrated globally because of measures such as the use of drones to deliver samples for testing at the test centres and personal protective equipment (PPE) to health facilities.
Others were the closure of the borders and the mandatory quarantine of all travellers who arrived in the country within a certain period, the strict compliance with preventive measures and the ban on social and public gatherings early enough to curb rapid community spread, he said.
Also, Ghana’s decision to impose restrictions on movement and the directive to allow enhanced contact tracing received applause, he added.
Commendation
The United Kingdom led the number of WHO member countries that commended the Government of Ghana for its innovative ways of handling and fighting the novel coronavirus that has infected over 4,000 people in the country.
The Ambassador and Permanent Representative of the UK Mission to the WTO, the UN and other International Organisations, Julian Braithwaite, at the WHO virtual meeting, praised Ghana for using innovative methods to fight the pandemic and also easing the restrictions on the movement of people.
He singled out Ghana’s use of drones to deliver testing samples and PPE, saying it showed how far the country had progressed in the use of technology to combat the pandemic.
The impressed UK Ambassador said: “With what we’ve heard today, a number of countries are now taking their first steps to lift the lockdown measures and we’ve heard some very innovative examples of what different countries are doing, taking Ghana’s example of using drones for deliveries.”
According to Dr Aboagye, the ECOWAS had also requested for Ghana’s response plan to serve as an anchor for the sub-region.
Furthermore, he said, Nigeria was also collaborating with Ghana in the former’s fight against the pandemic.
Case count soars
Meanwhile, due to enhanced contact tracing and testing, the country has been able to identity cases and picked them for management, one of the key factors in the fight against the pandemic.
Yesterday, Ghana’s case count hit the 4,012 mark.
The new figure was released by the Ghana Health Service (GHS) on its website 24 hours after it had reported a case count of 3,091 last Thursday.
The new figure represents an increase of 921 cases over that of the last update.
Giving an update on the case count on its website, the GHS said: “Over 50 per cent of these cases were as a result of an outbreak in an industrial facility with 1,300 workers, of which 533 have been confirmed positive.”
While the number of deaths remain at 18, the recoveries have improved to 323, with 20 more recoveries, for which reason the active cases now stand at 3,671.
Regional breakdown of cases:
Greater Accra - 3436
Ashanti – 210
Eastern – 96
Central – 58
Western North – 56
Western – 35
Volta – 32
Upper East – 26
Oti – 24
Upper West – 20
Northern – 16
North East Region – 2
Bono – 1
Savanna – 0
Bono East – 0
Ahafo – 0
