Covid-19: Ghana Getting Overwhelmed by Cases? Ashanti Region Hospitals Nearly “Full”

Ghana has seen recent spikes in its covid-19 numbers.

Despite earlier predictions by the Ghana Health Service (GHS) that the disease may have reached its infection rate peak, the covid-19 case count in the country continues to steadily rise.

On May 5 when the Director of Public Health, Dr Badu Sakordie had made the claim of the country’s “infection rate peak”, Ghana had recorded 2,719 cases with 18 deaths and 294 recoveries. Since then Ghana has recorded 9,871 more cases in less than 6 weeks, with death toll pegged at 66.

Reports of health workers also getting infected coupled with the recent development has made the covid-19 case management more burdensome.

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The Ashanti Region, which has recorded 2,362 infections and 38 deaths so far, is running out of the capacity to handle additional exponential coronavirus infections as hospitals experience a shortage of beds.

Ashanti Regional Director of the Ghana Health Service (GHS), Dr Emmanuel Tinkorang, said on Wednesday,[June 17, 2020]  that “almost all the treatment centres are now full”.

The Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital, the biggest referral centre in the region, has 18 beds while the Kumasi South hospital has 20.

But, “All the 38 beds are now full,” Dr Tinkorang bemoaned.

However, health facilities are woefully inadequate to handle critical cases, and health authorities are calling for immediate expansion.

The Komfo Anokye Hospital and the Kumasi South Hospital, the biggest health facilities, are occupied, raising fears of their ability to contain new cases.

Dr Tinkorang said ”they cannot contain” the current infections being recorded.

He continued: “Accra may have UGMC, they may have Korle Bu, they may have 37 Military Hospital, they may have police hospital. Ashanti, apart from Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital, we don’t have any facility that we can say, can manage severe and critically ill patients.”

In the Central Region, the Mfantseman Municipal Health Directorate of the GHS has said the number of health workers in the area being infected by the disease has significantly weakened strength of frontline staff in the fight against covid-19.

The Deputy Director of Nursing Services at the Saltpond Hospital, Ms Theresa Naana Yankson, said the infected workers -24 out 72 cases recorded in the area- and their contacts at the hospitals, had been quarantined, and that had had a further toll on the staff strength.

This has fuelled discussions that the country was getting overwhelmed by the skyrocketing covid-19 cases, causing critics to chide the Akufo-Addo Government for not preparing well to fight the pandemic.

The Ghana Health Service (GHS) has however debunked suggestions that the country’s health facilities are being overwhelmed by the increasing number of Covid-19 cases.

According to the Director-General of the Ghana Health Service, Dr Patrick Kuma-Aboagye, enough preparation have been made so far to accommodate Covid-19 patients at the various health facilities in the country.

 “We are not overwhelmed, our isolation centres are not full, we have spaces at Ga east and other hospitals…in case management if one ward is full, it doesn’t mean that there are no other places…so we are not overwhelmed.” Dr Kuma-Aboagye noted.

He added that “we never underestimated the COVID-19, so we were well prepared…we hear that we are moving cases to Cape Coast, it’s never true, it’s the other way round, so our hospitals are not full.”

With two high profile Ghanaian officials – Health Minister (Kwaku Agyeman-Manu) and the CEO of Ghana’s National Health Insurance Authority (Dr. Lydia Dsane-Selby) – having contracted the disease, the case of “Ghana’s covid-19 preparedness” continues to be a debate.