Ghana COVID-19 cases shoot above 11,000

In less than a week, confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Ghana has jumped to 11,118, weeks after the partial lockdown was lifted and life returned to some normalcy while protocols of handwashing, social distancing and wearing of masks are being drummed home.

Within 24 hours 262 cases shot the numbers to 11,118 with the Greater Accra Region recording the highest number. The Region has 6,888 cases.

At 11,118 total positive cases, the active cases are 7,091, 48 deaths and 3,979 recoveries.

Ghana announced its first two cases on March 12, 2020. Following that parts of the country was placed under a three-week lockdown. But then the economy started to suffer and the lockdown was lifted.

When lifting the lockdown, the president gave the following as part of the justification: “In view of our ability to undertake aggressive contact tracing of infected persons, the enhancement of our capacity to test, the expansion in the numbers of our treatment and isolation centres, our better understanding of the dynamism of the virus, the ramping up of our domestic capacity to produce our own personal protective equipment, sanitisers and medicines, the modest successes chalked at containing the spread of the virus in Accra and Kumasi, and the severe impact on the poor and vulnerable, I have taken the decision to lift the three week old restriction on movements in the Greater Accra Metropolitan Area and Kasoa, and the Greater Kumasi Metropolitan Area and its contiguous districts, with effect from 1am on Monday, 20th April,” he said.