COVID-19: Ghana cases rise to nine

Ghana has recorded two new COVID-19 cases, bringing the total case count to nine, as of 0953 hours on Thursday, March 19, 2020.

The Ghana Health Service (GHS), which announced the update on its official website dedicated to sharing information of the pandemic said it received the report from the premier Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research (NMIMR).

Both cases were recorded from the Greater Accra Region and the results were received on March 19, 2020.

The GHS said both were imported cases of Ghanaian nationals – the first being a 56-year old man who travelled back to Accra from a trip to United Kingdom about a week ago; and the second, a 33-year old who also returned to Accra from a conference in United Arab Emirates (UAE).

Both patients, it said, were receiving treatment in isolation.

There has been no local transmission yet, no fatality recorded, and all the nine patients are responding well to treatment.

On contact tracing, a total of 399 contacts had as of this morning been identified and being followed up, it assured.

It said 19 of the contacts developed some forms of symptoms, therefore, samples were taken for laboratory testing at the NMIMR.

Fifteen of the results proved negative and the GHS awaits those of the remaining four.

Ghana recorded its first confirmed case on Thursday, March 12.

Source: GNA