Recording COVID-19 cases in Secondary Schools is no news – Okoe Boye

The Deputy Minister for Health, Bernard Okoe Boye, has shot down suggestions to close down Senior High Schools after six confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the Accra Girls Senior High School.

The Ledzokuku member of Parliament insisted that closing down schools is not the best option.

“If you have a reported case of COVID _19 in a school,  it’s not news because COVID-19 is a global pandemic, ” he argued

The Deputy Health Minister said strict adherence to the COVID_19 protocols and intense contact tracing in the various secondary schools should be done to manage the situation.

“Does that mean that if you record a case at a place, you should close down the whole place? What you need to do is to do contact tracing to manage the situation” he said in a Citi FM interview, monitored by theghanareport.com.

Accra Girls’ Senior High School is the first school to have confirmed covid-19 cases as final year students return to school to prepare for their West Africa Secondary School Certificate examination.

Some parents stormed the school’s premises Monday morning demanding for their wards and calling for the school’s shut down after six out of eleven students tested positive for the virus.

Responding to the calls, the deputy minister said, the whole country  might as well be shut down

“…Otherwise, Ghana and the world should shut down today” he argued.

On June 24th there were reports that some students of Mawuko Girls’ Senior High School have been isolated over suspicion of contracting COVID-19.

But it turned out to be a hoax.

 Earlier reports also said that four students at the Odorgonno Senior High School (SHS) were under quarantine in relation to COVID-19, on Monday, June 22.

It also turned out to be a false alarm.

Ghana has recorded 20,085 cases of coronavirus with 122 deaths and 14,870 recoveries.

Below is the regional breakdown of coronavirus cases in Ghana