The Ghana Health Service (GHS) says the number of COVID-19 cases being recorded among students was not alarming.

Describing the cases as “minor sporadic”, the Director-General of the GHS, Dr Patrick Kuma-Aboagye said the cases were expected especially during the first four weeks of reopening.

“It was expected that in the first three to four weeks, because people were moving from home to school, we were going to have some cases,” he said at a press conference in Accra on Tuesday [February 9, 2021).

Dr Kuma-Aboagye noted that, so far, some cases had been recorded in schools within the Greater Accra, Eastern, Central and Upper West Regions.

He said as at Sunday, February 7, the Greater Accra Region had recorded 56 cases with no fatalities.

The Central Region had recorded eight cases with two recoveries, while the Eastern Region had recorded 95 cases.

“Looking at the number of children we are dealing with… one, it’s high but comparatively, I wouldn’t say it is an alarming number. So far, we’ve not had any COVID related deaths in the schools,” he noted.

He added that the national and regional teams have visited the affected schools, assessed the situations and given recommendations on how to improve social distancing and observe the protocols.

National case count

As at Saturday, February 6, Ghana had recorded 675 new cases, increasing the cumulative cases to 73,003.

The country has also recorded 10 new deaths, bringing the total deaths to 482.

The number of clinical recoveries/discharges has also increased by 925, totalling 65,583.

Dr Kuma-Aboagye noted that the active cases in the country “have reached a level that we’ve never reached before.”

KIA

According to Dr Kuma-Aboagye, Ghana has seen a decline in positive cases from international travels.

He said, “for instance, yesterday, they tested 953 passengers and only two were positive.”

New variant

Dr Kuma-Aboagye stressed that the new South African variant had not been detected among the population in Ghana.

Rather, he said in January this year, the UK variant had been detected among some patients; of which 88 per cent were in the Greater Accra Region, 90 per cent in Takoradi and 25 per cent in Tamale.