Volta's COVID-19 cases jump to 30 within a week

The Volta Regional Minister, Dr Archibald Yao Letsa, has stressed the need for strict adherence to preventive measures against COVID-19 in order to mitigate its spread.

This follows a 200 per cent jump in figures of positive COVID-19 cases recorded in the region, from 10 to 30 in a week, as of May 1, 2020.

The minister in a statement copied to the Daily Graphic indicated that all the 30 cases were in isolation and responding to treatment.

Case details

In a comprehensive detail of the 20 new cases, the statement said 19 of the cases were from the enhanced contact tracing exercise as  May 1, 2020 and one also recorded from routine surveillance.

Fifteen of the cases were contacts of the six quarantined travellers at Aflao in the Ketu South Municipality who were confirmed positive on April 12, 2020, while the 16th contact to test positive is a 71-year-old woman who is closely associated with a case confirmed earlier in Ho.

The statement added that the "remaining three contacts that tested positive are contacts of cases confirmed positive in Hohoe on April 12, 2020."

“The one additional case detected from routine surveillance is a 45-year-old man who returned to Kpando from Accra on April 20 to seek medical treatment after he started experiencing worsening respiratory symptoms whilst in Accra," the statement added.

Enhanced testing

The Public Health Emergency Management Committee, based on technical advice has, therefore, sanctioned the mass testing of groups with relatively higher risks in order for the region to get a firmer grasp of the transmission of the virus in emerging hot spots.

The University of Health and Allied Sciences was recently certified and has commenced testing for COVID-19 to boost the region's response activities.

Dr Letsa stated that further steps have been taken in collaboration with other stakeholders to rapidly expand the capacity of the laboratory.