Where are your alternative figures and data? - Kweku Baako asks NDC over ‘cooked’ figures

"Have they given us alternative figures and facts? I thought a technical team made up of experts was set up; have they not brought alternative figures so that we can interrogate?" Kweku Baako asked.

The Editor-in-Chief of the New Crusading Guide newspaper was reacting to some skeptics who questioned the COVID-19 recovery figures put out by the Ghana Health Service (GHS).

The doubting Thomases who popped up following news of the over 700 COVID-19 recoveries, included Special aide to former President John Mahama, Joyce Bawah Mogtari, who reportedly called for "strict proof".

In a tweet, she wrote: “How the hell did 790 more people recover overnight!! . . . We need to put these numbers to strict proof!!”

This generated intense debate, especially on social media and in the political arena as critics felt Madam Mogtari should rather be happy with the number of recoveries.

Kweku Baako, speaking on Peace FM's 'Kokrokoo' programme, said until there are alternative facts and figures, he will stick to the numbers from the official sources.

"I have not heard alternative figures coming from well-groomed experts. The experts in the NDC communication team;...so that we can interrogate. This whole skepticism and casting doubt (on figures) coming from official sources, you counter it and give alternative figures then we can interrogate instead of doubting and extending an invitation to join where we are all skeptical; I think it is not worth it…it drags this whole process somewhere else," he said.

GHS Denial

Meanwhile, the Ghana Health Service has denied falsifying figures insisting that the figures put out are a true representation of what is happening on the ground.

The Director-General of the GHS, Dr. Patrick Kuma Aboagye speaking at a press briefing, Tuesday, May 19, 2020 said; “When it comes to recoveries as I’ve been saying when someone is ill, if you do not die…at the end of the disease, within three weeks you’ll recover and I’m sure some of us have the experience…so from the beginning when we had one, two, three, we were not expecting major recoveries in the first one month of which they’ll come but as you have more cases, through data, you should expect more cases recovering. That’s why we’re having an exponential increase in the number of cases.”