Dr James Amoah-Dankwa, an Intervention Cardiologist at the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH) is suggesting to government to impose another lockdown to help tackle the surging COVID-19 cases in the country.
Speaking in an interview, he intimated that, if the lockdown is imposed, it will afford government adequate time to break the chain of transmission, especially in communities which are becoming a major source of transmission.
Dr Amoah-Dankwa described the case surge and the rate at which people are dying from the virus in recent times very worrying.
“I am of the view that we should have gone back to the original restrictions to make sure that we cut the virus from moving for about one month, when we do it that way, we will be able to contain it like the Chinese did initially.”
He further added that, until preventive measures are enforced and also until the nation goes back to its initial and original restrictions, he does not think the country is currently safe.
His comment comes on the back of the recent surge of the COVID-19 cases in the country which saw a very sharp rise in cases within some days, which health experts and stakeholders have described as alarming with some calling for a second imposition of lockdown.
Dr. Amoah- Dankwa stated that, he is of strong conviction that the update of the cases by the Ghana Health Service is not commensurate with the number of cases that are being recorded in health facilities.
“We are admitting more people every day, so it means if you go into the community and do tests you will get a lot of cases.”
Ghana is currently recording an average of 200 cases daily. However, the latest COVID-19 figures released by the Ghana Health Service reveal the country has recorded over 600 cases in a day, the highest ever in recent time.
According to the Ghana Health Service, current data on COVID-19 cases in the country showed that, 658 new cases of infections have been recorded pushing the country’s active case count to 2,413 from 1,755.
Ghana’s total case count now stands at 59480, with total number of recoveries now at 56,706. Three more persons have succumbed to the virus bringing the total number of Coronavirus-related deaths to 361.
Eighty-three and 28 persons are in severe and critical conditions respectively and are receiving treatment at various health facilities in the country.
It was also reported that, 428 persons who returned to Ghana recently via the Kotoka International Airport tested positive for the virus and are currently going through isolation and quarantine processes.
According to the data from the Ghana Health Service also, Greater Accra continues to lead the national tally with 1,182 active case count followed by the Ashanti Region and Western Region with 312 and 152 cases respectively.
The Eastern Region also has 55 active cases, Central Region currently has 40 active cases, the Volta Region also has 42 and Bono East having also recorded 24 cases so far.
The Oti and Savannah Regions currently do not have any active cases.