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The leader of Risk Communication for the National response team, Dr Dacosta Aboagye has urged Ghanaians not to be discouraged by the increasing cumulative cases count as this number includes a large proportion of recoveries and does not tell the true picture of our current state.

According to him, the focus should be on the active cases which stand at 3,515 since this represents the current number of positive cases we are managing in our hospitals and isolation centres.

Dr Da Costa Aboagye, who is the Director of Health Promotion, noted in an interview with Peace FM that it is encouraging to see high recovery rates among COVID-19 patients and a decreasing trend of Ghana’s active cases. 

He further noted that there is hope for Ghana to overcome the virus when Ghanaians adhere to the safety protocols.

'Four (4) months after recording our first case, though the cumulative case count has exceeded 27,000, we have defied alarming predictions of overwhelming infection rates and deaths’. He noted.

Dr Da Costa said the country's COVID-19 recovery rate is 85% and if Ghanaians follow the safety protocols, the infection rate will continue to reduce drastically.

He said the Ministry Of Health and Ghana Health Service together with all health care workers in the country are managing the cases very well and thus have contributed significantly to the high recovery rates and low mortality rates compared with other countries.

With the current ease of restrictions, Ghana’s active case count has seen a sustained decrease trend amidst a few spikes. From around 7000 active cases in June to 5000 plus cases in early July and currently about 3500 cases. Though this pandemic is caused by a novel virus and is full of uncertainties, the current trend is a good sign of reduced infection rate at a time when some activities are allowed. He posited.

The data means Ghanaians must continue to adhere to the safety protocols as more health education continues. Dr Da Costa added.

Meanwhile, The Ghana Health Service explains that part of the 447 new cases recorded on 18th July 2020 was from samples that were taken between the periods of 13 June to 13 July 2020 but reported from the laboratory on July 14. Unfortunately, five more people have died of Covid-19 bringing the death toll to 144.