About 15,000 Ghanaians could die from coronavirus – Dr Nsiah-Asare predicts

Presidential Advisor on Health, Dr Anthony Nsiah-Asare, says about 15,000 people may die from the deadly coronavirus based on a model generated for the infectious disease in Ghana.

This revelation comes after President Akufo-Addo on Sunday, April 19, 2020, lifted the partial lockdown in Greater Accra, Tema, Kasoa and Greater Kumasi.

Dr Nsiah-Asare in an interview indicated that 10% of the Ghanaian population may probably test positive for the virus before the country’s case count on coronavirus gets to the peak of the infection.

He also noted that out of the 10% of Ghanaians who are likely to contract the disease, a lot of the cases are likely to be asymptomatic.

“We expect that about 10% of the population may be infected and out of the 10% of the population 80% may not show signs or symptoms at all and 5% of them will be very ill. That is the projection,” he said.

The former director general of Ghana Health Service made these comments on Accra-based station, Joy FM on Tuesday, April 21, 2020.

With Ghana having a population of about 30 million people, 10% of this population is 3,000,000. Meaning, 3,000,000 Ghanaians may contract the virus.

5% of the projected three million infections falling seriously sick means that about 150, 000 will fall within this group.

Out of the 150,000 people whose case will be critical, 10% will be fatal; meaning 15,000 deaths will be recorded.

Dr Nsiah-Asare, however, noted that a new model of projections may not strictly apply to Ghana due to the dynamics of cases recorded in the country.

“If you look at the cases that we are seeing, the cases that are getting critical are very, very small…it means, we have a situation where this hypothesis may be the case in Ghana,” he highlighted.

Currently, Ghana’s coronavirus case count is 1,042 with 99 persons recovered and 9 deaths.