Coronavirus: Spike in deaths covers the peak of 2020 campaign period – Public Health Expert
Public health expert, Nana Kofi Quakyi
A public health expert, Nana Kofi Quakyi says the current spike in Ghana’s COVID-19-related deaths is as a result of infections that happened at the peak of the 2020 political campaign period.
Read full articleOver the past week, Ghana has recorded a sharp increase in its number of COVID-19 infections and related deaths.
The situation has caused a division in opinions as politicians have blamed citizens for being reckless in observing safety protocols whiles political leaders are also being blamed for contributing to the spike with activities that characterised the recent general elections.
However, in a Twitter post by Mr Kofi Quakyi, he explains that the spikes are a result of events political activities that took place in December.
“Those deaths relate to infections that happened 5-6 weeks prior, which covers the peak of the campaign period.”
According to him, the reason accounting for the period that appears between December and now that the situation is being appreciated is that death is a lagging indicator.
He again explains that the recorded number of deaths is skewed as the actual number of COVID-19 deaths reported by the Disease and Surveillance Department of the Ghana Health Service is usually delayed.
“Also, our view on the actual numbers of #COVID19 deaths is very skewed by the long delays in reporting by @DSD_GHS. This point has been made over and over again since August when some reported deaths actually occurred as far back as June,” he added.
Government representative at the Ministry of Information, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah in a recent interview said there was no data to back claims that political activities contributed to the rise in Ghana’s COVID-19 cases.
According to the former minister, data available shows that the majority of the newly recorded cases were contracted during the festive season where Ghanaians were reckless and ignored safety protocols during the period.
