Don’t cast doubt on Ghana’s coronavirus recoveries - Pius Hadzide

A Deputy Minister for Information, Pius Enam Hadzide, has admonished Ghanaians not to doubt the COVID-19 recovery numbers from the Ghana Health Service (GHS).

He made the call at Tuesday’s press briefing in Accra on why the country has seen an increase in the number of COVID-19 recoveries.

According to Mr. Hadzide, “we are concerned that insinuations that casts doubt on the veracity of recoveries declared by the Ghana Health Service and now a suggestion for strict proof of their recoveries can worsen the already dire problem of stigmatization of persons who have recovered.”

“We admonish fellow countrymen and women to gladly welcome our compatriots who were once infected and tested positive but have gone through the process of receiving care and have now consecutively tested negative back into our various communities as fully recovered persons who pose no threat to us,” he added.

Recovery figures from the GHS indicate that 1,754 persons who initially contracted the virus in the country have tested negative.

This the Deputy Minister for Information pointed out that “you would recall that officials of the Ghana Health Service and the Hon Minister for Information have repeated time without number at our press briefings that the Ghana protocol for declaring COVID-19 infected persons as recovered involves obtaining two straight negative results and that many persons who had been infected were awaiting their second tests and once those tests results came back negative, those persons would be declared recovered. It had abundantly been made clear that recovery was a process and not an event and does not occur overnight”.

Ghana’s case count for the COVID-19 now stands at 5,918 with 31 deaths.

Regional Breakdown

Greater Accra Region – 4,422

Ashanti Region – 881

Central Region – 212

Eastern Region – 100

Western Region – 98

Western North Region – 57

Volta Region – 41

Northern Region – 31

Upper East Region – 26

Oti Region – 26

Upper West Region – 21

North East Region – 2

Bono Region – 1

Savannah Region – 0

Ahafo Region – 0

Bono East Region – 0