At least 1,084 new coronavirus cases have been confirmed by the Ghana Health Service (GHS) pushing the country’s active cases to 13,025.
The death toll hits 1,309 after three additional fatalities were recorded across the country, an update on the GHS COVID-19 dashboard reveals.
As at 31 December, 2021, Ghana’s total confirmed cases stand at 147,203. Currently, health officials have recorded 132, 869 recoveries.
So far, 22 persons are in severe condition whiles 4 remain critical , according to GHS. Cases detected at the Kotoka International Airport (KIA) are 5,532 with 3,839 recoveries.
Breakdown of regional cases
Greater Accra Region – 81,932
Ashanti Region – 21,692
Western Region – 7,879
Eastern Region – 6,710
Volta Region – 5,621
Central Region – 5,257
Bono East Region – 2,726
Bono Region – 2,157
Northern Region – 1,787
Upper East Region – 1,595
Ahafo Region – 1,108
Western North Region – 1,049
Oti Region – 865
Upper West Region – 747
North East Region – 283
Savannah Region – 263
Be on guard, Ghana in fourth wave
Dr Anthony Nsiah-Asare, the presidential advisor on health, has confirmed that Ghana is in a fourth wave of the COVID-19 pandemic as the country records over a 1000 cases daily.
Ghana currently has over 8,500 active cases and it is largely attributed to the new variant of the COVID-19, the Omicron which was discovered in South Africa early this month but has spread rapidly around the world.
Speaking on The Big Bulletin on Tuesday (28 December), Dr Nsiah-Asare said Ghana is also experiencing community spread of the new variant.
“We’re recording over a 1000 cases every day for the past few days. Now we’ve community spread, especially in Greater Accra and Ashanti Regions. We’re definitely in the fourth wave. So everybody has to be very careful. We need to wear our masks and avoid crowded areas,” he told Asaase News’ Beatrice Adu.
Compulsory vaccination
In an earlier interview on Asaase Radio, Dr Nsiah-Asare said the government may be forced to trigger compulsory vaccination under the Public Health Act if the increasing spate of new COVID-19 cases worsen.
“… It is the influx of people coming all over the world for holidays and I’m sure you are aware that there is a lot of surges all over the world, US, UK and some European countries are all having their fourth waves and a lot of our compatriots and other foreigners are coming into the country and once they are coming, the importation of the virus into the country will also go up,” he said.
“The Health Minister has already invoked the Public Health Act, but we have not come out publicly to say that we are going to compulsory vaccinate anybody. We are trying to vaccinate as many people as much as possible, using all sort of ways that we are using to convince the people…”
Fred Dzakpata
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