Ghana confirms first COVID-19 cases

Two cases of the COVID-19 have been confirmed in Ghana – for the first time since the disease broke out in China in December and spread across the world, compelling the World Health Organisation (WHO) to declare it a pandemic.

Speaking at a press conference tonight, March 12, 2020 the Minister of Health, Kwaku Agyeman-Manu said the two cases were confirmed after tests by the Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research in Accra today.

He said the two patients who are being kept in isolation and are in stable conditions, arrived in the country from Norway and Turkey.

“So these are imported cases of COVID-19”, he said, “We have initiated processes for contact tracing,” he added.

Only yesterday, the President outlined measures to contain the disease and announced a $100 million fund to tackle it in the country.

As the pandemic spreads, it has become difficult to know the exact number of people infected.

By Emmanuel K. Dogbevi