Presidential Advisor on Health, Dr Anthony Nsiah-Asare, has said that 10% of Ghana’s population is likely to test positive for the novel coronavirus.
Ghana’s coronavirus cases as of Sunday, April 19, 2020, stood at 1,042.
According to Dr. Nsiah-Asare, out of the 10% projected infections, majority of the cases are likely to be asymptomatic.
“We expect that about 10% of the population may be infected and out of the 10% of the population 80% may not show signs or symptoms at all and 5% of them will be very ill, that is the projection,”
He explained that with these projections, if Ghana’s population is estimated at 30 million, it implies some three million Ghanaians may test positive for the Covid-19 when infections peak.
Also, 5% of the projected three million infections falling seriously sick suggests that at least 150, 000 of the population will fall within this category.
Explaining further, the former director of the Ghana Health Service (GHS) said out the 150,000 people whose infection will be critical, 10% of will be fatal; which means 15,000 deaths would have been recorded before Ghana gets out of the woods.
Dr Nsiah-Asare, however, said this modelling may not apply strictly to Ghana because of the observed dynamics of the existing cases across the country.
“If you look at the cases that we are seeing, the cases that are getting critical are very, very small…it means, we have a situation where this hypothesis may be the case in Ghana,” he clarified.
Dr. Nsiah-Asare made this revelation on Joy News’ current affairs programme PM Express on Tuesday evening.
The Presidential Adviser on Health, however, could not say when infections will peak in Ghana.
President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has repeatedly said his government’s reaction to the coronavirus situation in the country is backed by science and data.
