Former Deputy Health Minister Dr Bernard Okoe-Boye says the government has reactivated the coronavirus response teams including contact tracers. 

According to him, these teams were dissolved after the country began recording fewer cases which had left treatment centres empty.

“It got to a point we had about 300 active cases. Now if you have 300 people and you are going after their contacts, their number will not be the same as when you had let’s say 900 cases,” Dr Okoe-Boye told JoyNews.

However, with the recent surge, he said doctors and nurses from hospitals across the country are being put back together to form new groups.

These groups, he explained, will help intensify contact tracing and coronavirus responses to assist in controlling the surge in active cases.

Dr Okoe-Boye also revealed that with isolation centres reaching their capacity, a new centre has been created at the Ridge Hospital to deal with the increasing numbers.

But for now, the “University of Ghana Medical Centre, Korle Bu and Ga East Municipal Hospital are the principal treatment centres,” he added.

Meanwhile, Pharmacist and Fellow with the Centre for Democratic Development, Ghana, Kwame Sarpong Asiedu said the treatment cost of Covid-19 should be enough to deter people from flouting the safety measures.

He explained that although the management and treatment of Covid-19 is free in public hospitals, the situation is different in private facilities.

"Some people are paying close to ¢50,000 for treatment", Mr Sarpong Asiedu stated.

“In this second wave most of the facilities were full, and people are having to use a lot of private facilities and these ones are paid for, I have had a number of my friends and family who have come up with bills as big as that.”