Coronavirus: Ashanti regional cases now 165

Confirmed cases of the novel Coronavirus in the Ashanti region now stands at 165, an update by the Ghana Health Service (GHS) official website has said.

This number is out of the 41,986 people tested so far in the region.

37 of them have recovered while five have died of the disease.

Dr. Emmanuel Tinkorang, the Regional Director of Health Services, told journalists in Kumasi that, three of the persons with the virus are currently on admission with 118 receiving home-based care.

He indicated that a total of 815 persons had so for been contacted through contact-tracing out of which 763 had completed their 14-day follow up with the remaining 54 being in isolation.

17 out of the 43 districts in the region had reported cases, with 56 per cent of the confirmed cases being males and 44 per cent being females.

The Regional Director added that stigmatisation and discrimination against discharged COVID-19 patients was a major challenge militating against the fight against the disease.

“Due to the stigma, there is always a fight when picking up a case at the community level but it is important for the communities to assist us to win the battle together”, Dr. Tinkorang pleaded.

He also expressed grave concern about how health workers who risked their lives to pick up cases in the communities were sometimes attacked and called for the cooperation of all stakeholders.

Dr. Emmanuel Tinkorang then made a passionate appeal to the media to step up public education on the stigmatisation of COVID-19 patients and how it was affecting efforts to contain the deadly disease.

He hinted that, his outfit was going to increase tracing, testing, and isolation with focus on mass screening of high-risk groups including market women, drivers, barbers, hairdressers, and all identifiable groups who come into contact with a lot of people daily.

Dr. Tinkorang disclosed further that, efforts were being made to add four more testing centres to augment the work of the Kumasi Centre for Collaborative Research in Tropical Medicine (KCCR) to deal with the perennial backlog of samples.

With the establishment of a testing centre in Tamale, the expectation is that pressure on KCCR would reduce to ensure real-time delivery of test results.

Dr. Emmanuel Tinkorang noted the availability of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) in health facilities had significantly improved and urged the public to observe all the preventive protocols to help curb the spread of the disease.