‘Ghana now reference point for COVID-19 management’ – Health Minister

Health Minister, Kwaku Agyemang-Manu, has touted government's achievements in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic, saying that Ghana has become a reference point for effective COVID-19 management around the world.

“I think this country has done well when it comes to the COVID battle. The only challenge we have is that, our success in battling COVID-19 has given us huge visibility across the global health landscape and now, Ghana is like anywhere everyone wants to come and learn from what we did”, he said.

He says, the measures put in place, account for the steady decline in active cases which stood at 42 as of May 3, 2022.

The sector minister, Kwaku Agyemang-Manu, made the remarks while opening this year's three-day Ghana's Health Sector Annual Summit in Accra.

“At the moment, we do not have a single severe case nor do we have any critical case. Our active case count as of May 3, was just 42. Unfortunately, however, in the process, we lost cumulatively 1,445 people through the COVID-19 pandemic.”

The government has attributed Ghana's success story so far in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic to the sterling leadership of President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo.

The Ministry of Health says, although millions of lives were lost globally due to the pandemic, the government managed to contain the situation, making Ghana one of the two countries that better managed the pandemic.

Some international bodies have commended the government of Ghana for its forthrightness in dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic since its outbreak in the country.

Since Ghana recorded its first two coronavirus cases in March 2020, there were several efforts towards expanding the country's testing capacity to provide timely and accurate data on the extent of the spread of the virus within the population.

These efforts, though significantly useful, were sometimes hampered by the limitations in compliance with standardized operational testing protocols, and efficient data processing and transmission systems for COVID-19 test results.