COVID-19 confirmed cases in Ghana reaches 16 with some community infections

One week after announcing its first two confirmed cases of COVID-19, Ghana has recorded 16 cases as at March 19, 2020, according to information from the Ministry of Health, and some of them have no travel history nor contact with confirmed infected people, and indication that they were infected locally.

The five new cases, the Ministry says were confirmed Thursday March 19, 2020 and all the five were reported in the Greater Accra Region. They are two females and three males.

The patients are 29-year-old female Ghanaian resident of Accra with no history of travel. Another 34-year-old female living in Accra got infected as a result of a contact with a confirmed case at the place of work. A 53-year-old male resident of Tema, also with no history of travel, no evidence of close contact with a confirmed infected case; a 41-year-old Ghanaian man, who arrived by KLM on March 15, 2020, noted exposure with family members in Amsterdam who were exhibiting respiratory symptoms. He was also on the flight with some passengers who were sneezing and coughing.

There is a 36-year-old Ghanaian man who lives in Paris, France. There is no confirmation of the date he arrived in Ghana and there is no evidence of contact with an infected person. All the tests conducted on them came back from the laboratory positive.

The Ministry says contact tracing has been started in all the cases.

By Emmanuel K. Dogbevi