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President Akufo-Addo has said that Ghana has recorded new variants of the novel Coronavirus.
According to the President, the cases were recorded at the airport following the recent genomic sequencing undertaken by scientists at the airport.
He established that these passengers have been isolated but work is ongoing to determine the presence and the extent of the spread of the new variants.[ads4]
“Recent genomic sequencing undertaken by our scientists have established that some arriving passengers tested positive for new variants of COVID-19. These passengers have all been isolated. Furthermore, work is ongoing to determine the presence and extent of spread of the new variants in the general population”, President Akufo-Addo said during his 22nd nationwide address on Sunday.[ads1]
He added that, “Detailed investigations of the cases indicate that, apart from arriving passengers at our airport who tested positive, infected persons have recent histories of attending parties, weddings, end of year office programmes, family get-togethers, and funerals. At these gatherings, most of them abandoned the use of the masks, and were engaged in actions that led to them contracting the virus.”
President Akufo-Addo also stated that due to the upsurge of the disease, most of the Coronavirus treatment centres across the country have gone from having zero patients to now being full.[ads2]
“However, since that time, we have seen an upsurge in the number of active cases, from a little over nine hundred (900) to one thousand, nine hundred and twenty-four (1,924). Our COVID-19 treatment centres have gone from having zero patients to now being full because of the upsurge in infections”
“Particularly worrying is the fact that the Ghana Health Service is recording, on the average, two hundred (200) new cases of COVID infections daily. The number of patients requiring hospitalisation and intensive care is rising. The number of severe cases, which stood at eighteen (18) a week ago, has increased sharply to one hundred and twenty (120). Two weeks ago, there was no critical case, we now have thirty-three (33) in our treatment facilities. Again, according to statistics from the Ghana Health Service, the considerable number of persons who are severely ill are, surprisingly, relatively youthful persons, with no previous underlying health conditions. The number of confirmed deaths has increased, sadly, from three hundred and thirty-eight (338) persons to three hundred and fifty-two (352) within the period.”
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