13 more die from COVID-19

Ghana’s COVID-19 deaths have increased to 390 from the previous 377.

This means 13 more people have died from the disease.

625 new cases have also been recorded, leaving the country’s active case count at 3,940.

There have been concerns raised over the public’s disregard for COVID-19 safety protocols.

The Director-General of the Ghana Health Service (GHS), Dr. Patrick Kumah-Aboagye in a press briefing on Thursday, attributed the spike in cases to the non-adherence of the safety protocols.

“The total number of active positives we have ever recorded is about 63,883. We have tested about 757,000 plus people with a cumulative positivity of 8.4% and our current active cases is roughly about 3,940. We have recorded 390 deaths so far, and you can see that there has been rapid escalation in the last few weeks on the number of deaths.”

He added that that all 16 regions in the country have registered coronavirus cases with the Greater Accra, Ashanti, Western, Eastern, and Central regions leading with the highest rate of infections.

“Today we are reporting total new cases as of January 26, 2021, and the majority of the cases are in Accra as we keep saying, Ashanti Region second highest number of new cases followed by Western Region. Currently, all 16 regions have an active case.”

As part of measures to ensure public safety, the Ministry of Health has announced that no fees will be charged for COVID-19 testing except for persons travelling.

“All other walk-in requests such as ill-health, contact tracing, and exposure must be done free-of-charge using public health resources,” a communiqué issued on January 27, 2021, said.

The cost of COVID-19 test had been a disincentive for persons to test and know their status.

The Ghana Medical Association, which was alarmed over the spike in cases asked the government to allow free testing for all persons or reduce the cost of the service.

The health professionals believe that scrapping of the testing fee will serve as an incentive for persons to test and know their COVID-19 status from time to time.