Upper West Region records 779 COVID-19 cases
The Upper West Region has so far recorded a total number of 779 COVID-19 cases with 36 deaths as of February 21, 2022.
This gives a case fatality of 4.5 per cent, which is higher than the national average, though the regional case load is relatively low.
Dr Damien Punguyire, the Upper West Regional Director of Health Services, made this known during the region’s 2021 Annual Health Sector Performance Review Conference held in Wa.
The conference was on the theme: “Improving Maternal and Perinatal Health Through Effective Maternal and Perinatal Death Audit Review in the Region.”
Dr Punguyire said as part of the regional response to the pandemic, six Genexpert machines were installed in Wa, Tumu, Lawra and Nandom Municipalities, as well as the Nadowli and Wa West districts for laboratory confirmation of cases.
A conventional PCR machine was also mounted in the Upper West Regional Hospital for samples testing.
Dr Punguyire explained that those interventions helped to address the initial delays and huge cost in transporting samples in Accra, Kumasi or Tamale and its associated anxiety among patients and clinicians who had had to wait for weeks to get laboratory feedback.
He said as of February 24, 2022, a total number of 404,563 doses of the vaccine had been administered to 283,782 persons, representing 51 per cent of the region’s target population who had received at least one dose.
About 26 per cent of the population had been fully vaccinated and 2.7 per cent had received a booster dose.
Giving the update of the vaccine in the region, Dr Punguyire said, so far, it had been comparatively good and applauded traditional rulers, religious leaders and the media for actively supporting and promoting the vaccination derive in the region.
“The vaccine is one of the surest ways to get our lives back and I want to urge all persons who are yet to get a dose or who have not completed their vaccination to do so,” he said.
The Regional Health Director, said the region lies within the African Meningitis belt, and it recorded a total of 233 cases with three deaths, compared with the previous year’s figure of 421 cases with 56 deaths.
Intensified surveillance, early reporting, effective case management and supportive supervision were the major driver of the low case fatality reported in the year.
Dr Punguyire said the region also successfully responded to yellow fever outbreak in Wa East and Sissala West Districts with targeted vaccination campaigns.
The conference is part of the accountability mechanism of the Ghana Health Service and the Ministry of Health, where service delivery processes, outcomes and challenges are shared with stakeholders in a bid to find solutions to challenges impeding progress within the health sector.
The forum would also help the stakeholders to take stock, exchange ideas, document lessons learnt and chart the way forward for continuous improvement of service delivery to achieve desirable health outcomes.
Source: GNA