Coronavirus: Contact tracers threatened by patients

Naomi Adu, the head of a contact tracing team at Mamobi General Hospital in Accra, has allayed the fears of the general public even as uncooperating persons suspected to be COVID-19 careers threaten their lives.

Adu told Joy News that such persons were making their work difficult as they refuse to subject themselves to testing and threaten to kill front line health workers if they are forced.

Narrating their ordeal, Naomi Adu said, a patient once told her: “I am not sick, don’t call this line again, the next time you call this line, I will look for you and kill you".

Naomi explained further: “We had a situation where we had to involve the military and police to help us convey people from their homes to the treatment center.”

She continued: “Some people threatened to sue us when they return from the treatment centers.”

She added that a lot of the suspected patients were in denial of their status and, therefore, refuse to subject themselves to treatment.

“People are now not owning up even when they test positive. When you call the person that their results are in, and you need to see them and explain, they will say, I don’t need your results, you can keep it...They threaten us, tell us things that will make us scared.”

Ghana's COVID-19 total cases as of press time at 5:40 am on 21 May, 2020 stands at 6,269. The increase, per the Ghana Health Service update (on their website) is attributed to new cases found in Greater Accra, Ashanti, Western and Central regions.

The update also indicated 125 more recoveries, raising the number of recoveries to 1,898.

As of Wednesday night, May 20, 2020, the number of deaths remain at 31.

This means the number of known active Coronavirus cases is 4,340.