The Ghana Registered Nurses and Midwives Association has disclosed that 20 of its members in the Ashanti Region have since the early part of January 2021 been infected with COVID-19.

The Association fears if the trend should continue at its current rate, the region’s healthcare system would be badly affected.

Ashanti Regional Chairman of the Ghana Registered Nurses and Midwives Association, Jones Afriyie Anto in a Citi News interview called on the government to intensify public education to help reduce the spread of COVID-19.

“The hospital is spending a lot in supplying PPE to staff for the work. The truth is that since this second wave, we have over 20 nurses and midwives who have been reported as positive. If the trend continues like that, it means that those nurses will not be available for work. Apart from that, their contacts are going to be traced and asked to isolate. Most of the contacts are going to be nurses and midwives. So they will also not be available for work. It is really burdening our work system and it is affecting us.”

He added that we are “calling for public education, so people obey the protocols. The handwashing under running water is important. People should also wear the mask in addition to the social distancing.”

Meanwhile, the Association has also urged the government to reintroduce COVID-19 induced restrictions to help curtail the spread of the virus.

“Government should also bring some restrictions if not total lockdown then some restrictions like banning funerals and social gatherings will do. With this new spate, if we don’t do that, the cases that will be recorded in the country and the Ashanti Region will not help us at all”, Jones Afriyie Anto stated.

Case count

The active COVID-19 cases in the country as of Thursday, January 28, 2021, have also gone up by 625 leaving the active case count at 3,940.

13 more deaths have also been confirmed bringing the country’s death toll to 390.

Director-General of the Ghana Health Service, Dr. Patrick Kumah Aboagye who made the announcement explained that the surge in cases is due to the continuous breach of the safety protocols.

“The total number of active positives we have ever recorded is about 63,883. We have tested about 757,000 plus people with a cumulative positivity of 8.4 per cent and our current active cases is roughly about 3,940. We have recorded 390 deaths so far, and you can see that there has rapid escalation in the last few weeks on the number of deaths.”

He further stated that all 16 regions in the country have registered coronavirus cases with the Greater Accra, Ashanti, Western, Eastern, and Central regions leading with the highest rate of infections.

“Today we are reporting total new cases as of 26th January and the majority of the cases are in Accra as we keep saying, Ashanti Region second highest number of new cases followed by Western Region. Currently, all 16 regions have an active case,” he added.