WHO to probe Ghana’s COVID-19 peak claims

The World Health Organization (WHO) has revealed that it will probe Ghana’s COVID-19 data to see whether claims that country has peaked are true or not.

At a press briefing on Tuesday, May 5, 2020, Dr Badu Sarkodie, Director of Public Health at the Ghana Health Service stated that Ghana was at its peak of the coronavirus crisis.

“So to answer directly to the question, we are at the peak of the curve,” Dr Badu Sarkodie said.

But some health experts dismissed the claims by Dr Sarkodie describing his claims as a myth and false.

But Dr Matshidiso Moeti, WHO Regional Director for Africa, in an interview with Pulse.com said the organization would have to look into the numbers with the Ghana government.

“We would need to look with the Ghanaian authorities and their data and see the conditions, the trends, the basis on which they say they have peaked…What I do know is Ghana is one of the countries that have very significantly expanded testing,” she continued.

“So they have gone out there looking for cases. Some of the increase in numbers that we are seeing in Ghana may be related to the fact that the case definition has changed slightly. In the beginning, they were probably testing people who presented ill at a health facility.

“We will look with the Ghanaian government. We know that they put in place strong measures for prevention and they are also testing very aggressively which we think is a good combination.”

“The question of whether a country has reached its peak or not is one of the most widely discussed questions worldwide,” Dr Moeti said, adding “It’s a matter of looking at the data of a country. We know that countries put in place these preventive measures starting with surveillance, contact tracing, isolation and then the physical distancing.

“What we are predicting now is that we might reach a peak at a slower pace but a lower level of cases in countries.”

Source: Ghana/Starrfm.com.gh