Government to give bi-weekly coronavirus updates

Government will from Sunday, March 15 provide regular updates on the coronavirus outbreak in the country, 3news.com has gathered.

The updates will be spearheaded by the Ministry of Information.

It will be twice every week but will be more regular if the need for information on the country’s covid-19 plans rises.

Ghana confirmed two cases of the deadly disease on Thursday, March 12 with the Minister of Health, Kwaku Agyeman-Manu, addressing journalists to make the announcement.

Before then, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo had made a public announcement of the country’s preparedness in a live nationwide broadcast.

Speaking on TV3/3FM’s The Key Points on Saturday, the Head of Public Health at the Ghana Health Service, Dr Badu Sarkodie, admitted that there were gaps in the delivery of information on the confirmed cases.

He said inasmuch as stakeholders want the best for Ghana, there may be back-and-forth here and there as characteristic of stakeholder engagements.

But he believes such gaps will be sealed going forward.

He dismissed reports that government concealed information on the confirmed cases to make room for the president’s announcement.

Dr Sarkodie categorically stated that the announcement by the Minister of Health was made within four hours of receipt of the test results from Noguchi Memorial Institute of Medical Research, which had taken 24 hours to run the test.

He said government will begin a bi-weekly update on the strain to have all Ghanaians informed.

“It will be recurrent and scheduled,” he stressed.