Fellow Ghanaians, good evening.
I came into your homes, on 17th January, to give an account of our COVID-19 situation – a situation which, per available data at the time, was not good.
To this end, I appealed to you, my fellow Ghanaians, to help contain the spread of the virus by respecting the protocols Government had put in place.
The hope was that we would begin to see an improvement in our case count, as a result. Two weeks on from that address, the situation is even worse.
As of Friday, 29th January, sixty-four (64) more people have, sadly, died, over the last two weeks, bringing the total number of confirmed deaths to four hundred and sixteen (416). Our hospitalization rates are increasing, with the number of critically and severely ill persons now at one hundred and seventy-two (172).
Our hospitals have become full, and we have had to reactivate our isolation centres. Our average daily rates of infection now stand at seven hundred (700), compared to two hundred (200) two weeks ago.
The total number of active cases has more than doubled, from a little over one thousand, nine hundred (1,900), two weeks ago, to five thousand, three hundred and fifty-eight (5,358) currently.
When I delivered Update No. 22, thirteen (13) out of the sixteen (16) regions had recorded active cases; today, all sixteen (16) regions have active cases.
Indeed, Greater Accra, Central, Western, Ashanti, Eastern, Upper East, Upper West, Volta, and Northern Regions are the hardest hit, accounting for ninety-four percent (94%) of the total number of active cases.
In effect, fellow Ghanaians, we have a lot of work to do in coming to grips with the disease. Given that recent studies show that the UK and other new variants are being transmitted within the population, we should all understand that our current situation could get very dire if efforts are not made, both on the part of Government and by you, the citizenry, to help contain the virus.
The analysis continues to tell us that the spread of the virus mostly occurs in indoor, confined spaces with poor ventilation, where people are talking, singing, or shouting without their masks.