Claims of decline in Ghana’s coronavirus active cases shocking – Franklin Cudjoe
Founding President of IMANI Africa, Franklin Cudjoe
On the back of claims by the Ghana Health Service that Ghana’s COVID-19 active cases are declining, President of IMANI Africa, Franklin Cudjoe has said the country’s testing regime for some time now has not been in sync with the virus spread.
Read full articleAt a press briefing on Sunday, the Director-General of the Ghana Health Service, Dr. Patrick Kuma-Aboagye assessed that the high rate of recoveries experienced in the country has led to a steep decline in the number of active cases the country is having to deal with, thereby easing the pressure on the health sector.
But reacting to this in an interview with GhanaWeb, the Founding President of IMANI said even though the number of recoveries in the country has increased based on the new discharge policy, it is hard to reconcile the claim by GHS, especially when testing for the virus is reported to have stalled for sometime now.
“It's rather shocking to hear that the numbers are declining. I don’t know which science is responsible for that," he said. "Don’t forget that these are the same people who told us that we had reached our peak, only for the numbers to spike. I won’t say I don’t believe them, but I don’t understand what they are talking about. Because the numbers obviously are not declining. If you are not testing enough, how then do you know that the numbers are declining?"
Last week, it was reported that over 3,000 samples have been left untested in the Western Region due to the lack of testing reagents and kits.
Speaking during Sunday’s press briefing, the Coordinator of Ghana’s COVID-19 testing programme, Professor William Ampofo, announced that the country’s testing capacity is set to hit full throttle as the nation has taken delivery of the needed laboratory equipment’s and kits.
Speaking on the country's testing capacity, Franklin Cudjoe said he finds it difficult to believe what the Ghana Health Service and the government has to say.
“The way we do things in this country, I am not surprised we have issues around testing capacity. It's very difficult for me to believe anything that they are saying now."
He, therefore, advised government to keep up with testing and ensure public adherence to the safety protocols whiles also admonishing the public to also practice the COVID-19 protocols.
