The Ashanti Regional Health Directorate has so far collected 1,836 blood samples through routine surveillance, community screening, contacts of confirmed cases and travellers, as part of efforts to contain COVID-19 in the region.
Ninety out of the figure are contacts of confirmed cases, 1,251 were collected during community screening, 372 through routine surveillance with 123 being travellers.
Regional Director of Health Services Dr. Emmanuel Tinkorang, who announced this, said confirmed cases in the region stood at 12 with two deaths.
Speaking at the weekly media briefing on COVID-19 in Kumasi on Monday, Dr. Tinkorang, said eight of the cases had a history of recent travel from affected countries.
He said the directorate was following 389 contacts, out of which two had tested positive with 58 being those picked from the Juaso case.
“So far we have 389 contacts and out of that 220 have completed their 14 days observation”, he emphasized.
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The Regional Director further disclosed that the last three cases, including a couple who had recently returned from France were recorded on April 04 and were all responding to treatment.
He said the region had also received several donations that were being used to procure Personal Protective Equipment (PPEs) including non-contact thermometers and medical goggles.
“The Ministry of Health has given us GHC400,000.00 to manage the contacts as well as the 351 health staff that we have trained to do the contact-tracing”, he noted.
He said apart from the contacts being traced, the directorate was also screening people living in high-risk areas.
“High-risk areas are areas where we have isolated cases. So all inhabitants who live within a one-meter radius of isolated cases would go through voluntary testing”, he explained.