Coronavirus testing: Ghana ranked second best country in Africa in fight against deadly virus
Ghana’s coronavirus response is believed to be the second best in Africa as the country conducts more testing than 27 other countries.
Only South Africa has conducted more tests than Ghana.
Testing people is seen as one of the most effective ways of understanding the spread of the deadly virus and controlling the pathogens.
Ghana has placed second on the number of coronavirus tests on a list of about 29 countries in Africa who have conducted tests.
As of Wednesday, April 15, the country had conducted 44,421 tests placing Ghana as the leader of the pack in West Africa. This represents a 1,430 per one million population ratio.
Only South Africa has done better with 87,022 tests which have revealed 2,415 cases, according to data compiled by Worldometer on the 52 out of 54 countries on the continent who have contracted the deadly virus.
Total cases recorded in Ghana are 636 with eight deaths. About 605 have been categorised as having “mild disease” and are on treatment; two are classified as moderate-to-severe cases, with no one in critical condition.
Compared to other countries, West African neighbours, Nigeria, have tested only 5,000 with 373 cases. Africa’s most populous country has registered 11 deaths and 99 recoveries.
Sharing a boundary with Ghana to the west, Togo has done 2,806 tests recording 77 cases and three have perished.
Total cases in Africa have surpassed 17,005 with 877 deaths and 3,349 recoveries. Out of the entire infections, 12,779 are active cases with 178 in serious condition.
The statistics place Ghana among the top 55 countries with the most tests globally.
Vice-President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia has lauded the efforts of the country in tackling the disease via aggressive tests.
Dr Bawumia, who was speaking at the launch of an app in Ghana dubbed GH COVID-19 Tracker, said Ghana was also doing well in testing coronavirus per capita.
Its good to be giving us such encouraging information
Well Done Ghana. The President has shown leadership in combating Covid-19. The pandemic has highlighted the importance of water, and communities with no access to clean water. We need to urgently put an end to illegal mining which is polluting our waters. We also need to rethink mining bauxite at Atewa Forest as this will not only destroy the eco-system but also pollute the source of water to over 5million Ghanaians. There is also the need to address housing. Too many Ghanaians are living in places not fit for human habitation where social distance cannot be observed. Such houses need to be pulled down and replaced with houses fit for human habitation.
This is the danger of myopic reporting being done by the media. It’s unhelpful!
First of all there is no reference on where the table came from. Even though testing is an important indicator in determining score of the caseload it does not constitute the only indicator to rate a response in general. Ghana has shown the right track in testing and this good work must be further intensified. However, its weak lockdown implementation, addressing social determinants of the lockdown and poor state of the health system will constitute to be challenges. There is no rating going on in the COVID19 response in Africa and anywhere in the world. Therefore, misinforming the Ghanaian population is the worst thing you can do in the fight against the pandemic.
I agree with anonymous about the skewed reporting. This is the wrong time and type of reporting for the country that needs to stay focused on the response and not allow space for relaxing. This pandemic must be won and testing isn’t the only way to win it. Ghanaians must brace for a tough struggle along with the continent. I am very happy that one of the key indicators of the response is being applied, but 44 thousand is still very small!