Infographics: Is the COVID-19 pandemic over in Ghana?

Not much is being said about the COVID-19 pandemic over the past few weeks and this has posed the question of whether the pandemic is over in Ghana.

As countries around the world like China, the United States, France and Italy occasionally put in place measures including localised lockdowns as well as mass testing to contain the spread of the virus, there have not been rollbacks in Ghana since President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo announced the lifting of most of the COVID-19 restrictions in March 2022.

The warning and the institution of restrictions for social gatherings and programmes of faith-based organisations prior to the festive period (Christmas and New Year) were not enforced in 2022.

When it comes to the number of COVID-19 cases, data from the Ghana Health Service indicates that as of December 16, 2022, Ghana has recorded a total of 170,038 cases with 169,573 recoveries, 1461 deaths and only four of these cases being active.



Source: Ghana Health Service

In the last few days, data from the World Health Organization suggests that no case of COVID-19 has been recorded in Ghana.



Source: JHU CSSE COVID-19 Data/GhanaWeb

COVID-19 preventative materials such as nose masks and hand sanitiser which used to cost so much when the virus hit Ghana in 2020 now cost almost next to nothing basically due to a reduction in demand for these items.

The figure below shows how the prices of COVID-19 preventative materials have dropped drastically between 2020 and 2022.

Source: GhanaWeb

With the number of days of no infections, can the COVID-19 pandemic be declared over in Ghana? No.

According to the World Health Organisation, an outbreak can be declared over after twice the maximum incubation period of the virus of the second negative test of the last confirmed infection of the virus.

Aside from that, since pandemics are global events and with many countries still seeing high levels of infections, the WHO, the body responsible for declaring pandemics, will not declare COVID-19 over anytime soon.

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