COVID-19 pandemic in Ghana


The COVID-19 pandemic in Ghana is part of the worldwide pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2. The first two cases in Ghana were confirmed on 12 March 2020, when two infected people came to Ghana, one from Norway and the other from Turkey.

Background

On 12 January 2020, the World Health Organization confirmed that the novel coronavirus was the cause of a respiratory illness that affected a cluster of people in Wuhan City, Hubei Province, China. This was reported to the WHO on 31 December 2019. On 11th March 2020, the World Health Organization declared the novel COVID-19 a pandemic.

Timeline and highlight of events

Some of the highlights of events over the months after Ghana recorded its first case are mentioned below.

March 2020

In this month there were the earliest confirmed cases, response from the Government of Ghana.Joint meetings among major stakeholders were conducted as well as training sessions were organised for teachers and other professionals on how to handle suspected cases of the novel COVID-19. Measures instituted by the President of Ghana on the 15th of March 2020 included bans on school activities, bans on every social gatherings as well as a temporal lock down and restrictions of the movements of people in the Greater Accra and the Ashanti Regions of Ghana.

Earliest reported cases

Greater Accra, Ashanti and Upper West regions recorded cases in March. At an emergency press briefing on 12 March 2020 Health Minister Kwaku Agyemang-Manu announced Ghana's first two confirmed cases . The two cases were people who returned to the country from Norway and Turkey which made them the first actual cases of COVID-19 in Ghana. These two cases began the first contact tracing process in Ghana. Of the first two cases reported in Ghana, one case was a senior officer at the Norwegian Embassy in Ghana who had returned from Norway, while the other was a staff member at the United Nations offices in Ghana who had returned from Turkey.

Government response

Financial
Ghana's president Nana Akufo-Addo began delivering a series of state of the nation addresses concerning COVID-19 in March by announcing that the cedi equivalent of US$100 million would be made available to enhance Ghana's coronavirus preparedness and response plan.
Bans and restrictions
Initially the Government of Ghana banned all public gatherings including conferences, workshops, funerals, festivals, political rallies, church activities and other related events to reduce the spread of the virus. Beaches were also closed. Basic schools, senior high schools and universities, both public and private, were also closed. Only BECE and WASSCE candidates were permitted to remain in school under social distancing protocols.
Traveling to Ghana from countries which had recorded over 200 positive COVID-19 cases was strongly discouraged with non-admittance of such travellers; this restriction did not however apply to Ghanaian citizens and people with resident permits.
All of the country's borders were later closed for two weeks from midnight of Sunday 22 March 2020. Passport services were also suspended.
On 30 March, the partial lock down of Accra and Kumasi took effect. Members of the Executive, Legislature and the Judiciary; and some services such as those that were involved in the production, distribution and marketing of food, beverages, pharmaceuticals, medicine, paper and plastic packages, media and telecommunications were exempted from the restrictions.
Disinfections and fumigations
The Local Government Minister announces the disinfection of 137 markets in the Greater Accra Region.
Health services
On 26 March, 64 new cases were recorded increasing Ghana's case count to 132. On the same day, a letter written and signed by the Director General of the Ghana Health Service recalled all staff on study leave into active service. This was to help accommodate the workload on health centres. A special life insurance cover for the professionals at the frontline dealing with the pandemic, was announced by the Ghana Health Ministry. The workers were insured under Group Life cover, with an assured sum of GHC 350,000 on each life.

April 2020

Reported cases

For details see Timeline of the COVID-19 pandemic in Ghana.
During the month of April cases increased to 2,074 at the end of the month. Cases were confirmed in most of the regions of Ghana, with some coming from those entering via unapproved routes along the Ghana-Togo border.

Government response

Disinfections and fumigations
There were several disinfection exercises of markets in the Northern, North East and Savannah regions as well as the Eastern Region. The Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development teamed up with Moderpest Company and Zoomlion Ghana for the exercise.
At a press briefing, the Director General of the Ghana Health Service, announced the commencement of local production of nose masks as part of efforts to arrest the spread of the pandemic.
The Ghana Education Service and Zoomlion Ghana Limited also joined forces to launch an initiative to fumigate all senior high, special and technical schools in the country to curb the spread of the pandemic.
Bans and restriction
The border closure was extended by the president, for another two week effective midnight of Sunday 5 April 2020.
Mandatory use of masks was to be enforced by businesses and organizations.

May 2020

Reported cases

For details see Timeline of the COVID-19 pandemic in Ghana.
The hotspots identified were in the Greater Accra, Ashanti and Central Regions. In Greater Accra, the Tema Metropolitan, Accra Metropolitan, Klottey Korle and Kpong Katamanso districts recorded the highest tallies with Tema taking the top position,followed by the Ablekuma, Okaikwei South and North, Ashiaman and Adenta areas as well as the Ga Central townships. In the Ashanti Region, Obuasi had the highest figures followed by Kumasi, Oforikrom, and Nkawie. Other areas were Old Tafo, Asokwa, Kumasi Municipal, Kumasi Metropolis and Suame which has high numbers as well. Komenda-Edina-Eguafo-Abbrem District, Cape Coast, and Ajumako are the districts with the high numbers in the Central Region.
695 persons tested positive at a fish-processing factory in Tema after a worker contracted the virus and infected over 500 workers there in a widely reported case of a super-spreader. All 1,300 staff of the company were tested, yet 95 percent of the affected persons recorded a first negative test.
On 29 May 2020, 50 workers at the Jubilee Field operated by Tullow Oil were confirmed to have tested positive for the virus.

Government response

Bans and restrictions

Reported cases

For details see Timeline of the COVID-19 pandemic in Ghana.

Reported cases

For details see Timeline of the COVID-19 pandemic in Ghana.
On 27 July, the Head of WHO claimed he would reconvene the agency's emergency committee to assess the COVID-19 pandemic.

Infections among health workers

On 20 May 2020, it was confirmed 30 health workers tested positive for the virus in Ashanti region during their line of duty. It was confirmed by the Regional Director of Health Services. Affected persons were front-line workers managing the disease in the region. 173 new cases were confirmed making Ghana's case move to 6,269 according to Ghana Health Service. 125 more recoveries were made, raising the number of recovered persons to 1,898.
On 18 June 2020, it was confirmed 97 health workers in the Ashanti region tested positive for the virus. It was made known by the Regional Director of Health during a press briefing in Kumasi.
On 24 June 2020, the CEO of Korle-Bu tested positive for the virus. Three staff of his office also went for isolation. The Ghana Association of Medical Laboratory Scientists confirmed the death of one of its members who died from the virus. He worked at the Weija-Gbawe Municipal Hospital.
The Presidential Advisor on Health said health officials would not conduct mass testing exercise for coronavirus in Ghana because the approach is expensive and would not reduce the spread of the virus.
NMIMR said it conducted a COVID-19 testing audit and hoped to clear backlog of 7,000 samples yet to be tested.
The Director General of the GHS said a team was to assess the circumstances for which front line health personnel were being affected with the virus.
The Health workers union claimed over 770 health workers contracted COVID-19 disease because of lack of PPEs. WHO announced independent evaluation of the world's response to COVID-19 pandemic.
NMIMR kept track of persons who were discharged under the new COVID-19 discharge protocols.
Private medical practitioners raised red flags over how the country is managing COVID-19 after its first outbreak.
About 2,065 health workers tested positive for COVID-19 in Ghana.
24 Health workers tested positive for COVID-19 in the Ahafo region. This was disclosed by the Regional Director at an interview.
One nursing training school in the Western region recorded COVID-19 cases.
Six staff of the Northern Regional Health Directorate contracted the virus. Also, 22 staff were infected by the virus. 32 health workers also contracted the virus at the TTH.
About 254 staff of KATH were reported to have tested positive of the virus since its outbreak in Ghana.

Ghana’s Rank in Africa

In June 2020, Ghana was ranked as the country with the fourth-highest number of COVID-19 cases in Africa with 12,929 cases.

Covid-19 and job losses

Ghana's Trades Union Congress, revealed an estimated 100,000 job losses in the formal sector and 400,000 in the informal sector after a market research. All these jobs were lost in less than 6 months after the first COVID-19 case in March, 2020.

COVID-19 pandemic in Ghana by Region