Deputy Minister for Information Pius Enam Hadzide has slammed cynics of the COVID-19 recovery numbers from the Ghana Health Service (GHS) as their pessimism could promote more stigmatisation of recovered patients.
An aide to former President John Dramani Mahama, Joyce Mogtari Bawah in a cynical rant, questioned the figure of the recovery of coronavirus patients, which stood at 1,754 as of yesterday.
“How the hell did 790 more people recover overnight!! We need to put these numbers to strict proof!!”, Joyce quizzed in a tweet that was hugely supported by many loyalists of the main opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC).
In an apparent response to the cynicism at a media briefing in Accra yesterday, Mr Pius Hadzide admonished Ghanaians not to doubt the COVID-19 recovery figures from the GHS.
“We are concerned that insinuations that casts doubt on the veracity of recoveries declared by the Ghana Health Service and now a suggestion for strict proof of their recoveries can worsen the already dire problem of stigmatization of persons who have recovered.
“We admonish fellow country men and women to gladly welcome our compatriots who were once infected and tested positive but have gone through the process of receiving care and have now consecutively tested negative back into our various communities as fully recovered persons who pose no threat to us”, he added.
Recovery figures from the GHS indicated that 1,754 persons who initially contracted the coronavirus in the country tested negative.
Explaining the increase in recoveries, the Deputy Minister for Information said, “you would recall that officials of the Ghana Health Service and the Hon Minister for Information have repeated time without number at our press briefings that the Ghana protocol for declaring COVID-19 infected persons as recovered involves obtaining two straight negative results and that many persons who had been infected were awaiting their second tests and once those tests results came back negative, those persons would be declared recovered. It had abundantly been made clear that recovery was a process and not an event and does not occur overnight”.
Ghana’s case count for the COVID-19 as of Tuesday 19th May, 2020 stood at 5,918 with 31 deaths.
Regional Breakdown
Greater Accra Region – 4,422
Ashanti Region – 881
Central Region – 212
Eastern Region – 100
Western Region – 98
Western North Region – 57
Volta Region – 41
Northern Region – 31
Upper East Region – 26
Oti Region – 26
Upper West Region – 21
North East Region – 2
Bono Region – 1
Savannah Region – 0
Ahafo Region – 0
Bono East Region – 0
