The Ghana Health Service (GHS) has confirmed that forty-one students belonging to a school (name withheld) in the Greater Accra Region have contracted COVID-19 and are undergoing treatment.
Speaking with Beatrice Adu on the Big Bulletin on Monday (21 June), Asiedu-Bekoe Franklin, a physician epidemiologist at the GHS said the issue was detected four days ago and had initially begun with five students from the same dormitory.
He said after contact tracing, forty-one tested positive to COVID-19.
“Actually, that is about four days now and five students started showing symptoms and we identified their contacts and that was over ninety contacts. We did a test and the number of students who tested positive were forty-one.”
He added, “The forty-one affected students are asymptomatic and are confined in a dormitory because most of them were dormitory mates. Only the initial five showed symptoms and are doing well now,” Asiedu-Bekoe said.
Information from the Ghana Health Service website indicates that, Ghana has recorded 95,059 confirmed COVID-19 cases with 93,005 recoveries and discharge. The number of active cases stands at 1,260 with 45 new cases and a COVID-19 death toll of 794.
Africa is in the middle of a full-blown third COVID-19 wave and there is need for more vaccination, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has said.
The total infections have crossed the five million mark and at least seven African countries have run out of vaccines.
“Africa needs millions more doses here and now,” WHO’s Africa Regional Director Matshidiso Moeti said.
South Africa, Morocco, Tunisia, Ethiopia and Egypt have recorded the most virus cases in the continent.
Uganda and Namibia are experiencing a deadly third wave, with dozens of fatalities recorded daily. A total of 136,030 people have succumbed to the virus in different African countries, according to WHO.
The Delta variant is in 14 African countries while the Beta variant, first detected in South Africa, is in 25 countries.
The WHO says there’s no clear timeline on when more vaccines will be available but there is an urgent need for them.
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