After three weeks, the Ghanaian President, Nana Akufo-Addo, has lifted the lockdown that had been placed on three cities in Ghana due to what he says is improved testing and the severe consequences that the lockdown has had on the economy.
Accra and Kumasi, the largest cities in Ghana, and Tema can now go back to normal operations but citizens have been asked to keep wearing their masks and practice social distancing.
The capital Accra, the second largest city Kumasi and the industrial city of Tema were placed under a three-week lockdown to prevent the spread of coronavirus.
Schools will remain closed and the ban on public gatherings will still remain.
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According to Ghana’s Disease Surveillance Department, a total of 1,042 cases have been confirmed after testing a total of 68,500 samples. Health authorities are still awaiting test results of 18,000 samples.
Nine people have died so far.
The country has begun using drones to transport samples to laboratories in order to improve the turnaround time.
According to the president, the country is well prepared to conatin the virus. He also said that increased confirmed cases were recorded during the lockdown period because health workers were albe to effectively trace and test contacts of infected persons.
Ghana has traced 86,000 contacts so far, 68,500 of the number have since been tested, 1,042 (1.5%) confirmed cases as of April 19, 67,549 (98.5% negative) tested negative, 18,000 test results expected.
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