The Northern regional director of the Ghana Health service Dr. John Eleeza has clarified that, the two local COVID-19 cases recorded in Tamale are “community transmission” since the people involved has no travel history outside Ghana.
According to him, “the lady involved has no travel history outside the country and the male involved has also exhausted his incubation period after returning into the country after his travel to the Dubia”.
He indicated that, community transmission is a critical stage since many people may have the virus but will not show any of the symptoms associated with the virus and therefore stressed the need for social distancing and frequent hand washing.
“If we happen to get to a situation where most of the cases are asymmetric, they can easily transmit to others if they don’t keep to the social distancing we’re talking about, if they are not observing the frequent hand washing and the other protocols”.
Speaking on the Diamond power drive on Thursday morning, Dr. John Eleeza said scientists are still studying the virus since the mortality rate in Africa and in the West vary.
He said the best antidote for Africa currently is to follow religiously the precautionary measures put out by the health experts.
Dr. John Eleeza also revealed that, “first day we got over 30 people within Tamale during the contact tracing and we have since asked them to go into self-isolation and their samples are taken for testing”.
He indicated that, the contact tracing team will continue until all persons that came into contact with the two persons are traced, tested and treated if the need be.
Dr. John Eleeza however raised concerns that, “over 60 people are expected to be contacted during the contact tracing for the two persons and accommodating them will be a challenge because everyone will have to be in a single room, that explains the reason people are asked to stay in their homes whiles in isolation”.
Giving an updates on the Guineans, after some of them protested that they wanted to leave the isolation center, Dr. John Eleeza said, “had it not been for the closure of the bounders the four would have been deported by the Ghana Immigration service after they had recovered from COVID-19”.
Source: Edward A. Ken-Zorre | www.diamondfmonline.com | Ghana
