COVID-19 spreads outside lockdown areas in Ashanti region; 13 nurses quarantined in Bekwai

The deadly coronavirus has crept its way out of the Greater Kumasi Metropolitan Area which is currently under a partial lockdown into two uncontacted territories in the Ashanti region.

On Good Friday, three new cases were confirmed in the Bekwai Municipality and the Sekyere East District; human and vehicular movement in both areas have not been restricted by the President, as they fall outside the jurisdiction earlier announced.

The Bekwai Government Hospital has a record of two confirmed cases; our sources at the facility say they both have no travel history and no evidence of contacting a carrier has so far been established.

Samples of a 28 year-old male and the 56 year-old female who reported to the hospital Monday, April 6, showing signs of COVID-19 were later confirmed by the Kumasi Centre for Collaborative Research (KCCR) as positive.

The male is said to be in isolation at the same facility whereas the elderly female is under intensive care at the Komfo Anokye Teaching hospital in Kumasi.

Thirteen (13) staff members of the Bekwai Government Hospital who came into contact with the two patients have been asked to self isolate, our sources say.

The other case has been reported at the Effiduase Government Hospital of a young man who fled Accra to his hometown of Akuakrom, moments after President Akufo Addo announced the partial lockdown of the national capital.

He was first admitted at the Asokore Ahmadiyya Hospital after reporting symptoms of fever; he was later transferred to the Effiduase Government Hospital when his condition became worse.

Nurses at the two hospitals say they fear for their lives; a husband who stays in a single room apartment with his nurse-wife told Kumasi-based Angel FM that he wouldn’t know how to welcome her home.

This is the third time confirmed cases of COVID-19 has been recorded outside the Greater Kumasi Metropolitan Area since the disease broke out in Ghana; the earliest case in Obuasi, some 51km outside the capital.

Ghana’s case count stood at 378 as at Thursday night, President Akufo Addo told the nation in his 6th nightly address.

Six deaths and three recoveries have so far been recorded.

Source:MyNewsGh.