Coronavirus: ‘Our hospitals are full’ – Akufo-Addo announces

President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has announced that the various hospitals treating persons who have tested positive for COVID-19 are full. This is mainly due to the daily rate of infections which stands at an average of 700.

When COVID-19 first hit Ghana in March, the president declared a lockdown of parts of Accra, Tema and Tema metropolitan areas when total active cases hit 397.

Today, however, despite over 4000 active cases recorded in this second wave of infections, with “our average daily rates of infection now stand[ing] at 700, compared to 200 two weeks ago”, all social media predictions of a lockdown announcement by the president did not materialise.

The president in his 23rd Coronavirus address on Sunday said: “You do not have to be arrested by the police before you wear your mask, your workplace should not be closed for non-conformity with the protocols, if there is no urgent reason for you to be outside, please stay at home.”

He continued, “As of Friday, January 29, sixty-four more people had sadly died over the last two weeks, bringing the total number of confirmed deaths to 416…our hospitalisation rates are increasing, with the number of critically and severely ill persons now at 172. Our hospitals have become full, and we have had to reactivate our isolation centres.”

The total number of active cases, President Akufo-Addo noted, has more than doubled from a little over 1,900 two weeks ago, to 5,358 currently.

The president, therefore, only announced that funerals should be limited to 25 persons.

“My faith in God tells me that this too shall pass, for, the Battle is the Lords,” Akufo-Addo concluded his speech.