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Government has wiped off relevant information on Ghana’s coronavirus situation from the official website launched to update Ghanaians on the outbreak of the virus which has so far infected over 1,000 people.
The portal was introduced by the Ministry of Information on March 15; just three days after Ghana recorded its first two positive cases, to provide timely and relevant information to the public every six hours.
Two days after widespread claims that the government has been massaging the release of confirmed covid-19 cases in the country, some key data on the website which puts Ghana’s covid-19 situation into perspective have all been removed.
On Thursday afternoon, 3news.com detected the COVID-19 homepage which sits on the Ghana Health Service official website, has been wiped almost clean with only the total number of confirmed cases in the country show.
On Thursday afternoon, 3news.com detected the covid-19 homepage which sits on the Ghana Health Service official website, has been wiped almost clean with only the total number of confirmed cases in the country showing.
Information on the regional distribution of the recorded cases in Ghana as well as the statements that come with each update have all been removed from the homepage of the website.
Also wiped off from the site is the controversial line graph which some critics used as the basis to accuse the government of massaging figures on confirmed cases being released.
The number of deaths recorded, those under quarantine as well as those who have recovered from the virus and the others responding to treatment or critically ill which were previously displayed broadly on the homepage have all been removed.
The Ghana map which displayed the cases recorded in each region has also been removed.
For the past 12 hours, visitors to the website are greeted with only the total number of cases recorded in Ghana and a faintly scripted notice saying “updates coming soon”. It is unclear how long the website will remain in its current state.
Reason for the removal of the critical information from the website is also unknown as government has not yet commented on the issue.
Other issues
Meanwhile, although the government promised a six-hour update on the website that has not been achieved.
The timestamp on the website has been programmed in a way which many suspects was deliberately done to deceive people.
Instead of giving visitors the actual time the data is updated, visited are currently given the time people access the website as the time the updated time. Thus if you visit the website at 11:20 p.m., it will automatically give you the same time as the last time the data was updated.
Although the website has not been updated since the last update on Wednesday morning, as at the time of filing this report the time and date stamp on the website indicated Thursday, April 23 2020 22:24:38 as the last updated time.
Ghana’s situation
As at the last update on Wednesday, Ghana had recorded 1,154 confirmed coronavirus cases with 120 persons cleared as clinically cured having tested negative twice after receiving treatment.
A total of 1,021 were said to be responding well to treatment with only one in critical condition, on a ventilator.
Nine others have died from the virus which has overwhelmed health facilities across the globe.
