Virologist at the Kumasi Centre for Collaborative Research (KCCR) is warning of a higher death toll if Ghanaians fail to adhere to the Covid-19 protocols.

Ghana has recorded a rise in Covid-19 related deaths recently, though the active cases keep declining.

Speaking to Israel Laryea on the AM Show, Dr Michael Owusu said the Delta strain, which is easily transmissible and has found its way into communities in Ghana, kills faster than the strains earlier recorded.

“You know, this variant is about 70% highly transmissible than the Alpha variant. What it means is that more people will get infected. And if more people get infected, more people will be severely sick and then you’d expect more people to die. Ideally, the number of new cases should correlate with the number of active cases that we record. But we have a limitation. The deaths that we are seeing are not daily deaths because of challenges with getting reports from the various facilities.”

Dr Owusu also lauded the Ghana Health Service’s approach of vaccinating residents in hotspot communities.

“The vaccines are targeted at the hotspots, which is very good. The Ashanti, Bono, Greater Accra regions are driving the numbers. If you have more of them vaccinated, you have a chance of succeeding in reducing the active cases. The eagerness is there. People are excited because they know the vaccines work. The other good thing is that these vaccines have a good efficacy rate, about 90%.”

Also on the AM Show was Head of Community Health at the University of Ghana Medical School, Prof. Alfred Yawson who asked Ghanaians to get vaccinated, debunking rumours that the vaccine will affect the health of those who take the jabs.

“We’ve been taking antigens since we were young. We should encourage the populace to take the jabs. These myths come up when we’re introducing new vaccines. We’ve stories that men will be impotent and women being infertile to curtail the progression of our generation. We’ve been taking vaccines and our men and women are still giving birth.
We should look at the benefits of the process.”