Ghana Health Service dispels fears of COVID-19 second wave

The Ghana Health Service has dispelled reports suggesting Ghana is on the verge of a second wave of COVID-19 infections.

According to the Director of the Service, Dr. Patrick Kumah-Aboagye, available data does not support these assertions.

Ghana’s cumulative COVID-19 case count is nearly 50,000 with 620 active cases and 320 deaths.

The current numbers show a slow but steady rise in active cases over the month of October, raising concerns that Ghana may have to soon deal with a second wave of COVID-19 as is happening in other countries if nothing is done to arrest the situation.

From 25 cases recorded within a week, the latest update suggested that 31 cases were recorded on a single day on October 29.

As of October 18, the country had 382 cases of COVID-19 but exactly two weeks later that has almost doubled to 620.

That means in the last 15 days, the country had recorded 238 cases.  The figure means on the average the country recorded almost 16 cases daily in the last two weeks.

But Dr. Kumah-Aboagye does not believe a second wave of the virus is looming.

“In terms of a second wave, those of us who are looking at the figures have not seen any indication in that direction. You normally would have used our moving averages, it’s still on the website, we have not tempered with it. I keep saying that we are where we are because we did many things including testing, isolation, treatment, and the adherence to the protocol.”

The Ghana Health Service boss, however, appealed to Ghanaians to continue to strictly adhere to all COVID-19 preventive activities including the wearing of face masks in public to protect the gains made by the country.

“Compliance to the protocol has reduced and it is important we all go back to it so that we do not get an even increase of cases. But, certainly, there is no hike,” he said.