Coronavirus: 68,591 samples tested so far - Akufo-Addo

Ghana has so far tested 68,591 since the first two cases of infections were recorded, the President has said.

According to Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, the number of cases tested so far was out of some 86,000 contacts which the country has traced till date.

"There is, thus, a backlog of some 18,000 tests whose results are yet to be received," Akufo-Addo announced during his address to the nation on Sunday [April 19, 2020].

He explained that "the overwhelming majority of these contacts have been established in the last three weeks of the partial lockdown in Accra and Kumasi. Out of this number, 1,042 persons, i.e. 1.5%, have been confirmed as positive, with 67,549, i.e. 98.5%, testing negative; 99 persons have recovered and have been discharged; and 930 persons, who have been isolated, are responding to treatment either in their homes or in treatment facilities."

Akufo-Addo observed that, the 930 persons, after their treatment, will again undergo the mandatory two tests to determine if they have also recovered from the virus or otherwise.

The president further stated that, the main reason our country has seen an increase in the number of confirmed cases over the last three-weeks is because of the aggressive decision government took to trace and test contacts of infected persons.

"This has enabled us to identify and isolate infected persons, protect the population from further infections, and contain better the spread of the virus. Indeed, Ghana is the only other country in Africa to have conducted more than sixty thousand tests, and we are ranked number one in Africa in administering tests per million people," he noted.

Watch the President's full address to the nation below.