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The Director-General of the Ghana Health Service (GHS), Dr Patrick Kuma Aboagye, at a media briefing on the COVID-19 on Friday, April 3, 2020, has disclosed that final results on 538 quarantine patients who tested negative will be released in a few days.

According to him, the medical team is looking at the quarantine patients who were negative and are still in the hotel, hoping that their results will remain the same in order to discharge them.

He mentioned that they have conducted a test for 538 out of the 1,030 people who were quarantined compulsorily upon arrival at the Kotoka International Airport for which they came out negative excluding the 79 people who were tested positive for the COVID-19.

“We have so far tested 538 people in 7 hotels and once the results are ready, we are hoping that within the next day, all the tests would have been done and the results would be shared with all people in the hotel”, he disclosed.

He reiterated that “preparation or management for their discharge would be done based on the results that we would have”.

He insisted that the contact-tracing team will continue to follow-up contacts, pleading the general public to support the exercise as the support the team has received so far shows a lot of encouragement.

“So far, the supports on the field show a lot of encouragement and that once they do the houses, they are encouraged to look at the area where the positive is; to test people to see whether there is a community spread”, he indicated.

He stressed that the extension of the contact tracing to look at the areas where the positives are located will the COVID-19 Medical Team the gauge as to what is really happening.

“We entreat all to support and encourage the contact tracing team...the district directors of Ghana Health Service have given them some notification to show that they are the people who have been sent to do this exercise”, he urged.

While expressing appreciation to companies and individuals who continue to support Ghana Health Service both technically and financially in the wake the COVID-19, Dr Aboagye revealed that psychologists have been engaged to talk to all those who are both positive and negative to brief them on what next to do.

“We will entreat all to abide by the quarantine rules that have been shared with them [both positive and negative] to save themselves, their loved ones and all of us”, he advised.