Coronavirus: Research scientist explains Ghana’s falling active cases

Research Scientist at the Kumasi Center for Collaborative Research (KCCR), Dr Augustina Sylverken, has said the continuous drop in Ghana’s active coronavirus cases is consistent with data from other parts of the continent.

Dr Sylverken told GhanaWeb in an exclusive interview that the trend in Ghana is also consistent with pandemics.

“I think the drop in the cases is generally the case across Africa. If you look at data from other countries, specifically African countries, you see a sharp drop. So what we are experiencing in Ghana is not too different,” she said on Tuesday, September 3, 2020.

Dr Sylverken, who is also a Virologist, was giving insights into the continuous drop in active coronavirus cases in the figures released by the Ghana Health Service (GHS).

For more than four times in a row, the figures put on the GHS coronavirus website show a decline in the active case count in Ghana, prompting some to say Ghana was winning the fight against the disease.

While attributing the drop in the active cases in Ghana to the change in how the country defines coronavirus recoveries, others speculate that Ghana has cut back on aggressive testing.

Dr Sylverken told GhanaWeb that the two factors could well lead to the observed drop in active cases, however, the observed drop is typical with pandemics.

“Although there is a drop, we don’t have to go to sleep. It is very, very important for us to adhere to the [safety] calls as clearly spelt out by the Ghana Health Service,” she said.

She said the GHS needs to continue doing aggressive testing and aggressive contact tracing.

“I think what we have done is that we have monitored and seen that most of our cases are coming from the hospitals and during such situations, the best thing to do is to channel a lot of your efforts to such environments. If you don’t do that you will get up one day and realise that we are out of logistics,” she urged the government.

She commended government for its good anti-coronavirus strategy so far.

“We may not be doing a lot of testing but we are doing a lot of follow-ups or the contacting tracing. So once you have tested positive, your immediate contact, they are also traced and tested,” she said.

Ghana's active cases currently stands at 904 with 276 deaths. Since the first case was reported in March 2020, Ghana has recorded a total of 44, 658 cases with 43,478 recoveries/discharges.