President Akufo-Addo has announced in his 6th update to the nation on measures taken in the country’s fight against covid-19 pandemic, Thursday,that the lockdown of Greater Accra, Kasoa, Greater Kumasi and some other districts in the Ashanti region have been extended by a week.
This new lockdown directive will take effect from Monday, 13th April, 2020.
“ So the decision has been taken, through the issuance of another executive instrument to extend the restriction on movements in the Greater Accra Metropolitan area and Kasoa and the Greater Kumasi Metropolitan area and its contiguous districts by one more week beginning 1am on Monday, the 13th of April; subject to review” he said.
According to the president, the lockdown of Greater Accra, Tema, parts of the Ashanti region and Kasoa has helped in reaching the goal of tracing contacts for testing and treatment where necessary.
“It appears that our common efforts have been modestly successful in containing the virus and minimising its spread. Undoubtedly, the decisions taken from day one (1) to act quickly and decisively, and, impose what may have seemed like harsh restrictions, have now proven to be effective, and have saved a lot of lives” he said
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Border Closure
President Akufo-Addo also said that the country’ borders have been closed till further notice as Ghana focuses on the “3 T’s”target of Tracing, Testing and Treatment as Ghana seeks to control the disease within it’s borders. Praising the country’s decision to fully close down its borders, he said “We now see that the decision to close down our borders has been justified” adding “Clearly, until we have the situation fully under control, we cannot, at this time, open our borders. They will have to remain shut until further notice”
The Numbers
Giving information of the case in Ghana so far, the president revealed total cases recorded do far are 378 out of whuch the country had recorded 6 deaths, 4 recoveries and 2 other patients who are in critical condition. The remaining 370 cases are mild cases and patients are in isolation “either being managed at home or at isolation centers”.
He also revealed that 105 confirmed cases came from those placed under mandatory quarantine & tested after their arrival in the country on the 21st and 22nd of March. Also 192 of the cases came from travelers who came into the country before closure of borders and their contacts making 79% of 378 cases imported.
“…the partial lockdown of Accra and Kumasi has facilitated a more aggressive programme of enhanced contact tracing, with a total of four hundred and fifty (450) teams” he added whiles giving giving additional information on the outcome of the enhanced contact tracing exercise which started a week ago.So far, 37,405 samples have been taken. 31,933 of these contacts are from Accra with the remaining 5,472 of contacts from Kumasi.
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He also added that as at Wednesday; 14,611 samples from traced contacts collected had been tested for the virus. Out of the 11, 308 contacts traced and tested in Accra, 52 (representing 0.46%) have tested positive. Kumasi had 3,303 traced contacts tested,out of which 25 (0.76%) have tested positive. This brings the total positive cases from the enhanced tracing to 77 (0.53%) of a total 14, 611 tested.
As tracing and testing goes on, President Akufo-Addo said the expectation is for less positive numbers and community spread adding that the results will give insight for further measures to be put in place.
“Whilst the results are encouraging, in suggesting a limited number of positives and community spread, we expect to be able to test some ten thousand (10,000) additional samples in the coming week to give us a clearer picture to enable us take a decision on the way forward” he said.
