Eyes on the Ground: Contact tracing underway in Newtown

More than 20 people identified to have come into contact with some confirmed Coronavirus patients have begun a 14-day quarantine at the Airport view hotel.

The people were picked up at Newtown by some health workers and military officers involved in the contact tracing exercise on Wednesday and Thursday.

According to the officers who spoke to GhanaWeb off-camera, they picked up 15 persons on Wednesday, 15th April 2020.

Majority of these persons refused to cooperate with the officers and had to be forcefully taken to the Ayawaso North municipal health directorate where their samples were taken before being sent to the hotel.

As at 12noon on Thursday, April 16, the contact tracers had picked up 7 more persons in the community.

When GhanaWeb got to the health directorate, an old woman believed to be in her 60s and two young persons were waiting for an ambulance to transport them to the Airport view hotel after their samples had been taken by health workers.

The team followed the ambulance to the hotel but couldn't go beyond since it is now an isolation centre.

The contact tracers appealed to the general public to cooperate with them when the need arises for them to be sent into quarantine as the exercise is not meant to cause them harm.

The officers are still carrying out contact tracing in the community and hope to identify more people by close of the day.

Contact tracing is taking place across the country to help identify persons who might have contracted the virus through contacts with confirmed patients.

This is part of measures to curb the spread of the pandemic in the country.

Ghana has so far recorded 641 Coronavirus cases with 83 recoveries and 8 deaths.

Majority of the patients, according to the Ghana Health Service, do not have any history of travel.