Ghana’s coronavirus case count has increased from 641 to 834, the highest jump so far.
An update by the Ghana Health Service indicates that an additional 193 cases were recorded from various parts of the country.
In its routine check-ups, the Ghana Health Service said the new development was largely due to the enhanced contact-tracing and testing process which is ongoing.
The exercise has resulted in some 57,000 samples taken and undergoing testing; and out of that number, there was a backlog about 12,000 samples
The various testing centres reported 193 new positive cases from the first batch of the backlog.
“The Ghana Health Service is supervising the completion of a backlog of laboratory samples which have been picked for testing as part of the COVID-19 testing exercise. This is after some 57,000 samples have already been successfully tested as at April 15th 2020. In the first batch of this backlog, an additional 198 [including 5 announced earlier] have been found to be positive. This will bring Ghana’s total case count to 834 at the moment. The general public is however advised that this does not represent new infections that are occurring. It represents results from tests of a backlog of samples,” the Ghana Health Service indicated.
“Total samples tested so far now stands at 60, 916 with 1.37 % testing positive. The results of these backlog of samples when released do not mean the number of new cases recorded on the day of the report” the Service added.
Number of recoveries rise to 99
Meanwhile, the update from the GHS also show that 16 more people have recovered from the disease. This brings the total number of COVID-19 recoveries to 99.
Death toll hits 9
Also, Ghana’s death toll of the novel Coronavirus has increased to nine. The Ghana Health Service confirmed this on Saturday, April 18, 2020.
Regional breakdown
- Greater Accra – 685
- Ashanti Region – 59
- Eastern Region – 51
- Northern Region -11
- Volta Region – 9
- Upper West Region – 8
- Upper East Region – 8
- North East Region -1
- Western Region -1
- Central Region- 1