Five staff of local media company in Accra test positive for coronavirus

The media has played a significant role in sensitization against the novel Coronavirus, however, a local media company in Accra has fallen prey to the disease as five of its employees have contracted the virus.

Based in Kokomlemle, the management of The Multimedia Group has confirmed the positive cases at its premises saying it was discovered after contact tracing by the Ghana Health Service conducted tests on its employees.

“The affected team members, who were all asymptomatic, have been isolated in line with case management protocols...we can report that they are all hale and hearty and are responding well to treatment,” it said in a statement.

This negative press is a slap in the face for the media company which recently instituted a retrenchment and subsequently lost about a dozen of its core employees to other companies amid falling ratings.

After the company had stated that the five positive cases were at its business offices, one of its sports journalists, Gary Al-Smith, announced his positive status via a post on Facebook saying: “I’m one of the five. After consultation with my family, we have decided that from tonight, I’ll be speaking on radio and TV about my experience. We believe this can be my small way of battling the stigmatization problem we face.”

So far, some 339 new cases were recorded on Thursday, June 18 2020 pushing Ghana’s number of coronavirus infections to 12,929. An update by the Ghana Health Service indicates that the number of recoveries which stood at 4,410 on Wednesday, June 17, has shot up to 4,468 due to some 58 recoveries.

No new death was recorded as the death toll remains 66 with 14 people now critically ill and four on ventilators.