The last person to die of COVID-19 in Ghana departed on January 08, 2023.
President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo announced these in a televised address to update the public on the pandemic while declaring an end to COVID-19.
He extended the Government’s condolences to the families of those who have perished.
COVID-19 infected
The Ghana Health Service (GHS) confirmed the country’s first COVID-19 case on March 12, 2020.
Since then, 171,758 positive cases have been recorded out of the 2,538,198 tests conducted.
President Akufo-Addo announced that over 25 million (25,170,382) vaccine doses had been vaccination as of May 25, this year.
According to him, some 10.5 million 10,536,420 people are fully vaccinated people representing 52.7% out of the 20 million set target
He added that some 4.5 million (4,599,883) persons have so far received booster doses.
He pointed out that effective measures and strategies adopted to reduce infections and deaths in the wake of the pandemic included the expansion of the laboratory system’s capacity, through streamlined digital solutions, for timely case detection, diagnosis, and reporting.
President Akufo-Addo disclosed that the number of laboratories was expanded from two to sixteen nationwide in less than a year.
Additionally, he said the capacity of the contact tracing system was strengthened, with 1,340 surveillance officers trained during the first three months of project execution.
He explained that case management capacity was also reinforced with the establishment of 21 treatment centers and 129 Intensive Care Unit (ICU) beds in 10 of the 16 regions.
He lamented how that culturally defining Ghanaian symbol, the handshake, was prohibited and frowned upon and “we were advised not to hug our children and our loved ones.”
The most important of these decisions, he said, was that “the COVID-19 pandemic was over in Ghana”.
President Nana Akufo-Addo lauded frontline health workers, pharmaceutical companies, the Ministry of Health, as well as key stakeholders whose efforts helped in saving many lives.
