GHS’ 132 coronavirus case count does not add up

There are increasing concerns about government’s communication on issues regarding Ghana’s confirmed cases of coronavirus, particularly because there appear to be some inconsistencies on the provided ‘COVID-19 update site’ by the Ghana Health Service.

An official announcement on the page Thursday morning indicated that a total of 54 cases including 3 deaths have been confirmed ‘as at this morning’ – 26th March 2020. It, however, has 132 as the total of confirmed positive cases of the COVID-19 pandemic in the country.

The figures provided as at Wednesday remain 68, and an additional 54 cases should make the cases a total of 122, leaving questions about where the other ‘10’ comes from. It raises questions about the figures provided by the Ghana Health Service, especially because this wouldn’t be the first ‘error’ on the page since it was created.

Per existing information provided by the same site, also, there are already 3 recorded deaths out of the 68 recorded as at Wednesday, March 25, 2020.

Today’s announcement, however, indicates that the confirmed cases as at Thursday are 54, including 3 deaths. Logical scrutiny per the figures will mean there are 3 additional deaths to the already existing 3 recorded and announced on the site Wednesday.

Exactly a week today, official information as provided by the Ghana Health Service on the said site indicated that some 4 new cases had been recorded. Until 8.29am, Thursday, March 19, Ghana had confirmed seven cases.

A tweet from Information Minister Kojo Oppong Nkrumah announced two more cases had been confirmed. “Unfortunately we have confirmed two more cases overnight. Ghana’s case count is now at 9. Health services are still managing all suspected and confirmed cases well,” his tweet read.

A visit to the website showed figures which seemed to suggest that the country had rather recorded 11 cases instead of 9. "On the 18th March, we received another report from NMIMR indicating two (2) more confirmed cases from the Greater Accra Region. Both are imported cases. One is a 56-year-old man, a Ghanaian who travelled back to Accra from a trip to UK about a week ago.

The other is a 33-year-old Ghanaian, who returned to Accra from a conference in UAE. Both cases are receiving treatment in isolation,” a paragraph read.

The second paragraph, however, mentioned that two other cases had been confirmed in Kumasi. A few minutes afterwards, the Kumasi confirmation bit was taken off the website but screenshots had been taken.

Later in the afternoon, the Ghana Health Service, through the same medium, announced it had confirmed two cases in Kumasi. Interestingly, while previous communication said the cases were confirmed on March 18, GHS this time around said the cases were confirmed on March 19.

Information on the website read: "On 19 March 2020, we received notification from KCCR indicating two (2) newly confirmed cases in Kumasi in the Ashanti Region."