Ghana records 685 COVID-19 deaths

Ghana’s COVID-19 death toll has risen to 685 following the confirmation of six more deaths by the Ghana Health Service (GHS) on Monday.

This comes after the GHS had confirmed 12 new deaths on Sunday, March 14, 2021, which pushed the death toll to 679.

Additionally, 50 people are in severe condition with 22 others in critical condition.

The latest update by the GHS, via its designated COVID-19 portal, said an additional 282 new cases of infections had been recorded.

However, the country’s active cases have dropped to 3,908 from a previous 3,994 as of Sunday, March 14.

These cases were being managed at treatment sites and isolation centers across the country, while some were under home management, the GHS said.

The new infections were from tests conducted as at March 10, 2021. So far, a total of 83,169 people had recovered and discharged.

Ghana has so far recorded a total of 87,762 cases of the virus since it confirmed its first two cases in March 2020.

Out of the total confirmed cases, 30,676 were from the General Surveillance; 55,823 cases from the Enhanced Contact Tracing, while 1,263 have been recorded from international travellers disembarking at the Kotoka International Airport (KIA) since it was reopened on September 1, 2020.

Also, a total of 942,348 tests had been conducted out of which 288,877 were from routine surveillance, 473,389 from contact tracing, and 180,082 from international travellers arriving through the KIA. The positivity rate is 8.8 per cent.

Currently, all 16 regions have an active case. The Greater Accra Region remains the hotspot, accounting for more than 50 per cent (1,901) of active cases and with a cumulative case count of 48,953.

Ashanti Region has 304 active cases while its case count now stands at 15,025, followed by the Western Region with 170 active cases and cumulative cases of 5,495.

Others are: Eastern Region, 154 active cases, with cumulative case count of 3,999; Central Region 395 active cases with total cases of 3,157; Volta Region, 292 active cases, with total cases of 2,156; Bono East Region 40 active cases and 1,245 cumulative, and Northern Region 99 active cases and cumulative of 1,482.

The rest are Upper East Region 82 active cases and 1,271 case tally, Western North Region 39 active cases, 834 cumulative, Bono Region 94 active cases, 1,124 cumulative, Ahafo Region, eight active cases and 678 cumulative, Oti Region 66 active and 354 cumulative, Upper West 81 active and 444 cumulative, Savannah Region, Seven active and 97 cumulative, and North East 60 active and 185 cumulative.

Also, there are 116 active cases from international travelers at the KIA.

Meanwhile, on March 2, government rolled out mass vaccination exercise after the country took delivery of some 600,000 doses of Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines from the COVAX facility on February 24.

So far more than 400,000 people have been vaccinated with government targeting to vaccinate about 20 million of the population.

Source: GNA