Ghana’s coronavirus tests top 50,000

Ghana’s aggressive tests for Covid-19 has seen over 50,000 samples tested as of Wednesday, April 15.

The country is the second, behind South Africa, on the continent of Africa in terms of testing for coronavirus.

Precisely, 50,517 tests have been conducted as of Wednesday, April 15.

So far, 636 cases have been confirmed since Thursday, March 12 when the first two cases were announced by the Minister of Health, Kwaku Agyemang Manu.

The Noguchi Memorial Institute of Medical Research (NMIRM) has conducted a majority of the tests, mostly in the southern sector, while the Kumasi Centre for Collaborative Research in Tropical Medicine (KCCR) in Kumasi has conducted tests for suspected cases in the northern sector.

Ghana’s testing rate has been counted globally among the highest per a million population.

Before Wednesday, Ghana’s testing ratio was 1,430 per one million population.

Following Ghana is Egypt, which has tested 25,000 suspected cases so far, representing 244 per one million population, despite recording Africa’s second highest Covid-19 cases.

Nigeria has so far tested only 5,000 samples despite having Africa’s highest population.

Speaking on TV3’s Covid-19 360 on Wednesday, Minister of Information Kojo Oppong Nkrumah said Ghana’s testing strategy has been divided into four major categories.

About 13,838 tests were conducted from the normal surveillance, he said. This resulted in 268 testing positive.

The enhanced tracing, which began on Monday, March 30 has so far seen 34,657 tests conducted.

Mr Oppong Nkrumah said 253 persons out of that tested positive.

The mandatory quarantine in Accra and Tamale also saw a total of 2,022 tests conducted.

He said government is bent ongoing after the virus in order to stop its spread.