Nana Addo to update Ghanaians on COVID-19 fight tonight

President Nana Akufo-Addo will update Ghanaians on new measures the government is taking to contain the novel Coronavirus at 8pm tonight [Sunday, April 19, 2020].

The seventh address is expected to shed more light on the government’s strategies to contain COVID-19, especially in the wake of a spike in the number of cases recorded in the past week. The address is also expected to put to rest speculations about an extension of the lockdown by time and location.

Calls for the government to extend the restriction of movements in the country to other parts of the country have intensified, following an increase in the number of cases in Ghana.

An Economist, Dr. Gordon Abeka-Nkrumah has suggested that any move by the government to lift the current restriction of movements in some parts of the country will affect the progress made so far in the fight against COVID-19.

COVID-19 cases in the country have increased to 834, according to the Ghana Health Service (GHS). This is the highest increment in the record of new cases by the GHS. The 193 new cases recorded was mainly due to the ongoing enhanced contact-tracing and testing process which resulted in some 57,000 samples being taken and undergoing testing.

The various testing centres reported 193 new positive cases from the first batch of the backlog. The update from GHS included 16 more people who had recovered, putting Ghana’s total number of COVID-19 recoveries at 99. The GHS said one more person succumbed to the disease, raising the death toll at nine.