COVID-19: Five more die with 29 others in critical condition in Ghana

Five more people have died from COVID-19 in Ghana, taking the country's death toll to 577, the Ghana Health Service (GHS) has announced.

The latest update from the GHS on Sunday, February 21, also disclosed that 113 people were currently in severe conditions, while 29 others were in critical condition.

Additionally, the country's active cases have surged again to 6,658 after a slight decline witnessed over the past few days, which brought the active cases to 6,567 as of Saturday, February 20, 2021.

This follows the confirmation of 598 new cases of infections across the country.

These cases were from tests conducted as at February 18, this year.

However, 502 people have also recovered since the last update, bringing the total of clinical recoveries and discharges to 73,018.

The active cases are being managed in treatment sites, isolation centers across the country, while some are under home management, the GHS said.

Ghana has so far recorded a total of 80,253 cases of the virus since it confirmed its first two cases in March 2020.

Out of the total confirmed cases, 28,829 were from the General Surveillance; 50,221 cases from the Enhanced Contact Tracing, while 1,203 have been recorded from international travellers disembarking at the Kotoka International Airport since it was re-opened on September 1, 2020, the update stated.

So far, a total of 868,173 tests have been conducted, of which 266,157 are from routine surveillance, 436,556 from contact tracing, while 165,460 are from international travellers arriving through the Kotoka International Airport.

The positivity rate is 9.2 percent.

Currently, all sixteen regions have an active case.

The Greater Accra Region continues to lead in both active and cumulative cases with 3,214 active cases and 46,189 cumulative case count. It remains the hotspot for the virus in the country.

The Ashanti Region has 686 active cases, while its case count now stands at 14,046 followed by the Western Region with 429 active cases and cumulative cases of 4,742 and Eastern Region has 261 active cases, cumulative cases is 3,525.

Others are: Central Region with 479 active cases, total cases now 2,783; Volta Region, 380 active cases, total cases stand at 1,559; Bono East Region with 170 active cases and 1,081 case count and Upper East has active case count of 108 active cases and cumulative cases of 994.

The rest are: Northern Region – 168 active cases, 970 case tally

Bono Region- 191 active cases, 924 cumulative cases, Western North Region - 84 active cases, 797 cumulative cases, Ahafo Region - 76 active cases and 660 cumulative cases, Upper West Region-148 active cases and 357 cumulative cases, Oti Region-26 active cases and 272 cumulative cases
North East Region-50 active cases, 79 cumulative cases, Savannah Region - Two active case, 72 cumulative cases.

Also, there are 186 active cases and 1,203 cumulative cases from international travellers via the KIA.

The GHS, therefore urged the public to adhere to the safety protocols such as the regular washing of hands with soap under running water, wearing of face masks, sanitizing the hands regularly and social distancing to help curtail the spread of the virus.