This was made known by President Nana Akufo-Addo during his national address to the nation on Thursday, April 9, 2020.
According to President Nana Akufo-Addo, the new cases were detected as a result of the ongoing enhanced contact tracing and testing exercise.
“We now see that the decision to close our borders has been justified as 105 of the confirmed cases came from those who were mandatorily quarantined and tested on arrival into the country on the 21st and the 22nd of March. 192 of our cases also came from travellers who came into the country before closure [of our borders] and they contribute for 79% of the 378 confirmed cases [in Ghana],” the president said.
The President said the enhanced contact tracing has helped to trace over 37,000 people suspected to have come into contact with COVID-19 infected persons.
He said out of the number, samples from about 14,611 contacts in Kumasi and Accra had been collected for testing.
He also indicated that some 10,000 test results are expected in the coming days which will enable the government to decide on the way forward.
“We should be able to test some additional 10,000 samples in the coming week to gives us a clearer picture to enable us to take a decision on the way forward,” he said.
Extension of lockdown
The president said the development necessitates an extension of the two-weeks partial lockdown imposed on the Greater Accra Metropolitan Area and the Greater Kumasi Metropolitan Area by an additional week.
The extension takes effect from Monday, April 13, 2020.
The President last two weeks announced a two-week partial lockdown of the Greater Accra Metropolitan Area including Tema and Kasoa as well as the Greater Kumasi Metropolitan Area as parts of the effort to stop the spread of the viral disease in the country.
The decision was to enable government curb the spread of the novel coronavirus which had infected over a million people worldwide and led to the death of close to 80,000 others.
