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Tag: Ghana

  • 13 doctors test positive for COVID-19 in Ghana

    13 doctors test positive for COVID-19 in Ghana

    At least 13 doctors have tested positive for Coronavirus (COVID-19) in Ghana, an official of the Ghana Medical Association (GMA) said on Tuesday.

    The Ashanti Regional Chairman of the GMA, Paa Baidoo, disclosed this to the media in Accra.

    Baidoo blamed the development on the poor distribution of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) to health facilities across the country in the fight against COVID-19.

    “The virus affects virtually everybody, with no respect for the rich, poor, educated, or non-educated, including our healthcare professionals; nurses, pharmacists, and administrators,” he said.

    Although there are other risks of exposure, he said medical professionals faced an all-time high challenge of inadequate PPE due to an improper mode of distribution.

    He said that this endangered the lives of healthcare workers.

    As of Tuesday, the Ashanti region has 69 cases, the second-highest number of people infected in a region by COVID-19 in the country.

  • COVID-19: ‘We won’t use Ghana’s approach for Nigeria’ – NCDC DG

    COVID-19: ‘We won’t use Ghana’s approach for Nigeria’ – NCDC DG

    The Director General (DG) of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), Dr Chikwe Ihekweazu has said the Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) testing approach being used by Ghana would not be replicated for Nigeria.

    TheNewsGuru.com (TNG) reports Dr Ihekweazu stated this on Thursday during a live media briefing on the regional response to COVID-19 in Africa with the Word Health Organization (WHO) Regional Director for Africa, Dr Matshidiso Moeti and others.

    “We have been slow to start but those that understand molecular diagnosis know that it is not a simple thing to do. It is complex so I would rather go a little bit slower and get it right than speed into a situation that we will end up regretting.

    “Some managed acceleration is exactly what we are doing with a deliberate strategy on how to scale. Ghana has a different approach to testing. I know exactly what they are doing. I respect what they are doing. But we don’t want to go down that path because it has its limitations.

    “I want to assure everyone that we have learnt a lot of lessons from this. One of the biggest ones is that you have to build up your laboratory capacity,” Dr Ihekweazu said.

    TNG recalls that Head of Virology at the Noguchi Medical Research Institute, Professor William Ampofo had on Wednesday during a press briefing explained Ghana’s approach to COVID-19 testing.

    “We simply pool the samples, meaning that, if you have 1,000 samples, you put them in groups of 10 and you test 100 pools at a time.

    “So in a short time, instead of testing 1,000 samples, you test 10,000 samples. This method we are using now was derived in 1945 and this very efficient way we have proceeded,” Professor Ampofo explained.

    At the time of filing this report, Ghana ha 1154 confirmed COVID-19 cases with around 70,000 tests while Nigeria has 873 confirmed cases with under 10,000 tests.

  • Ghana Relaxes Movement Restriction Amid 1,042 Covid-19 Cases

    Ghana Relaxes Movement Restriction Amid 1,042 Covid-19 Cases

    The government of Ghana on Sunday lifted targeted lockdown on two major regions in the country citing improved testing of the coronavirus pandemic across the Country.

    The President of Ghana Nana Akufo-Addoh declared the lifting of the lockdown in a national Broadcast.

    Ghana is the first Country to relax the restriction of movement among African Countries affected with Covid-19.

    “Indeed Ghana is the only other country in Africa to have conducted more than 60,000 tests and we are ranked number pone in Africa in administering of tests per million people. The decision to impose restrictions on movement was backed by the data at hand and our next course of action is backed by data and by science,” the president said.

    Nigeria, Rwanda, South Africa, Uganda and more recently Zimbabwe have all extended lockdowns to prevent the spread of the virus.

    The Ghannian Government however warned that lockdowns could be imposed in hotspots if need be.M

  • Penalty miss against Uruguay haunt my life – Gyan

    Ghana and NorthEast United forward Asamoah Gyan has not forgotten about the penalty miss in the 2010 World Cup quarter-finals against Uruguay, asserting it will haunt him for the rest of his life.

    The Black Stars made it to their first-ever quarter-final in just their second appearance at the World Cup.

    They were poised to become the first African country to progress to the semi-finals when Ghana were given a penalty towards the end of extra-time. This was after Luiz Suarez was given a red card for using his hand to stop the ball from going in.

    Suarez was given a straight red card and Gyan missed the preceding penalty by playing it high into the stands, and it’s been a bitter pill to swallow ever since.

    “Till today, any time alone, it still haunts me,” the 34-year old told TV3 Ghana.

    “Sometimes I feel like the world should go back again so I can redeem myself, but I know this is something that will haunt me for the rest of my life.

    “I accept that because there is nothing I can do about it. I went there to save my country, but I ended up being the villain, which I accept because I know how people feel.

    “It was a disaster. It was crazy. I was also calm because I couldn’t sleep the whole night because I was crying the whole night until morning so I was somehow calm because I couldn’t cry anymore.

    “All I was telling myself was to get another chance because I knew I could redeem myself even if not football, something else. But even if I don’t, my kids will do it one day.”

    Gyan is Ghana’s leading marksman of all time with 51 goals from 109 caps.

    Goal

     

  • COVID-19: Welbeck donates relief materials to mother’s hometown in Ghana

    COVID-19: Welbeck donates relief materials to mother’s hometown in Ghana

    England international Danny Welbeck has donated a £10,000 relief package to the residents of his mother’s home town in Ghana as the coronavirus pandemic continues to impact the global economy.

    The relief package distributed to residents of Nkawiepanin in the Atwima Nwabiagya municipality of the west African nation includes food, sanitary items and sanitizers.

    Personal protective equipment (PPE) was also donated to the doctors and nurses in Nkawie Government Hospital in the Ashanti region.

    The donation was made in person by Welbeck’s aunt, Charlotte Adwoa Tumutuom, who spoke of the 29-year-old’s love for Ghana.

    “Danny has been very concerned about how his people would survive these trying times,” Tumutuom told Ghanaian news website Pulse. “Though he has never lived here, he has a great affection for the people of Ghana, so he felt it prudent to offer some help in the very small way that he can to support the government’s efforts in these times.”

  • COVID-19: Ghana extends border closure by two weeks

    Ghana has extended the closure of all of its borders for two more weeks, an official said.

    “This is to curtail the importation of COVID-19 cases and help us focus on the enhanced tracing and testing programme within the country”, said the Minister for Information Kojo Oppong-Nkrumah.

    Ghana announced the closure of its entry points from March 17, to prevent the further import of COVID-19 cases into the country.

    By a new Executive Instrument, the current closure, which starts at midnight on Sunday, would continue till April 19, the minister said.

    At least 89 travellers among those under mandatory quarantine since the first closure have tested positive for the pandemic.

    Ghana at present has 205 cases of coronavirus with five deaths.

  • Coronavirus kills three Ghanaians

    Coronavirus kills three Ghanaians

    The deadly Coronavirus has kill three Ghanaians, the country’s Foreign Affairs Minister, Shirley Ayorkor Botchwag said on Wednesday.

    Speaking a a news conference, Botchwag said the deaths occurred in Italy and in Denmark.

    Two of the deaths were recorded in Italy whiles the remaining one was recorded in the Scandinavian country of Denmark.

    However, the Minister assures the situation is not critical to evacuate Ghanaians in those countries.

    Botchway, however, advised Ghanaians living abroad to be careful and follow the instructions from health professionals, Ghpage.com reports

  • BREAKING:Anxiety as Gabon, Ghana, record first cases of coronavirus

    BREAKING:Anxiety as Gabon, Ghana, record first cases of coronavirus

    Gabon and Ghana have confirmed their first cases of coronavirus.

    With this current development, 10 countries have recorded positive cases in sub-Saharan Africa.

    Gabon being the ninth and Ghana, the tenth to record positive cases in Sub-Saharan Africa.

    Nigeria, Senegal, Ivory Coast ,Cameroon, Togo, South Africa, Burkina Faso and Democratic Republic of Congo have also recorded cases.

    According to a statement made by Gabon’s government, its case was a 27-year-old Gabonese man who had returned from France on March 8.

    Ghana’s health ministry said its two cases were people who had returned recently from Norway and Turkey.

    “These are imported cases of COVID-19. Both patients are currently being kept in isolation and are stable,” the Ghana ministry said in a statement.

     

  • Nigeria, Ghana, Others Reject Renaming of CFA to ECO

    The adoption of ECO currency by eight French speaking countries in West Africa has been kicked against by six English speaking nations in the region; Nigeria, Ghana, The Gambia, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Cameroon.

    Countries under the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) had in July 2019 agreed to adopt a single currency with a flexible currency regime by January 2020.

    But in December 2019, Benin Republic, Burkina Faso, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Mali, Niger, Senegal and Togo, with the backing of France, announced that they were changing their common currency, the CFA Franc, to ECO, through their union, West African Economic and Monetary Union.

    This was seen as a big slap and some nations in West Africa claimed France was behind the hijacking of the single currency idea from ECOWAS countries. Ghana came out to speak on the matter and Nigeria followed, promising to study the issue and take appropriate action.

    According to TVC News, after an extraordinary general meeting of ECOWAS heads of state and governments in the West African Monetary Zone convened to discuss the matter, Nigeria and five other Anglophone nations rejected the rebranding of CFA Franc to ECO.

    “The meeting notes with concern, the declaration by the chairman of the authority of the heads of state and government of the West African Economic and Monetary Union on December 21, 2019, to unilaterally rename the CFA Franc as Eco by 2020,” the broadcast media platform quoted a communique issued by the group.

    “WAMZ convergence council wishes to emphasise that this action (is) not in line with the decision of the authority of heads of state and government of ECOWAS for the adoption of the Eco as the name of an independent ECOWAS single currency.

    “WAMZ convergence council reiterates the importance for all ECOWAS member countries to adhere to the decisions of the ECOWAS authority of heads of state and government towards the implementation of the revised roadmap of the ECOWAS single currency programme.”

  • Ghana sacks all national team coaches

    The Ghana Football Association (GFA) has axed all of its national team coaches.

    The decision, which takes immediate effect, affects both male and female national teams, the GFA said in a statement.

    “The GFA extends its appreciation to all coaches and members of the respective national teams for their contributions to our teams and Ghana football,” the statement said.

    Some fans and football analysts have been calling for the head of Kwesi Appiah, the head coach of the Black Stars, following a round of 16 exits at the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations in Egypt.

    Appiah’s contract expired at the end of last year.