575 persons in Ghana being tracked for suspected coronavirus

Health authorities in Ghana are tracking some 575 persons identified to have had contact with persons who have so far tested positive for the novel coronavirus, which has killed one person in the country.

One of them who developed symptoms later tested positive, the Ghana Health Service has said.

Ghana has since March 12 when the first two cases were confirmed, recorded a total of 24 cases with 23 existing as at 6:40 p.m. Sunday.

“All the other twenty-three (23) confirmed cases are being managed in isolation; and are doing well on treatment,” it said on its website Sunday.

Seventeen of the confirmed cases are of Ghanaian nationality while the seven are other nationals from Norway, Lebanon, China, France and the UK.

Ghana has since the outbreak of the global pandemic tested a total of 315 suspected cases of which 24 came out positive.

The country has announced several precautionary measures including closing of all borders, placed a ban on public gathering and closed all schools to stem the rate of spread of the pandemic in the country.

Markets in the country’s capital will be shut down today March 23 for city authorities to fumigate more than 100 markets against the disease.

Although Africa is the least affected continent, the World Health Organisation has warned of possible crisis ahead.

Some countries in Europe, including Italy and France have been overwhelmed by the number of cases recorded, a situation that has caused health crisis in the region forcing some of them to announce stringent measures including lockdown.

Global figures of infections have hit over 300,000 with 13,000 deaths while some 93,000 people have recovered.