Coronavirus: 43 contacts in Tema test negative

Forty-three contacts traced in the Tema Metropolis in the contact tracing exercise by government, have tested negative to the virus, Tema Metropolitan Health Directorate revealed on Tuesday.

Speaking at a press briefing organised by the Tema Metropolitan Assembly (TMA), Dr Sally Quartey, Tema Metropolitan Director of Ghana Health Service, said 46 persons were named as contacts out of which 43 had been successfully traced, and tested negative, adding that the remaining three were 1being traced.

Dr. Quartey indicated that three persons were tested positive in Tema explaining however that under the protocols if a person tested positive outside his or her district of residence, they were counted under their district and not the district that the sample was collected at.

In that light, she said out of the three, one did not belong to the Tema Metropolis, thus the area official had two positive cases out of which one had fully recovered and one was responding to treatment, noting that Tema General Hospital which was one of the national treatment centres, was holding some patients accordingly.

She said contact tracing was not a one-off thing, therefore, the Metropolis’ eight contact tracing teams were still working to locate the remaining three and any other contact that might be mentioned, adding that the tracing used to be centralized until last week when the districts were tasked to do it.

Touching on the Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) for the health workers in the Metropolis, she appealed to organizations to help her outfit get adequate full PPEs made up of the coverall, gloves, face masks, head covers, goggles, face shade, shoe covers, among others to ensure that the health workers would be properly dressed to attend to cases and suspected ones.

Felix Mensah Nii Anang-La, Tema Metropolitan Chief Executive, launched an appeal to the corporate institutions, religious organizations and individuals to donate to support the Metro’s fight against the spread of the disease in the area.

Mr. Anang-La reminded the institutions that their organizations operated from the area and their workers who reside in the Metropolis needed that support to ensure that everyone was safe.