Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, the Information Minister, has lauded the government’s efforts in containing the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic in Ghana.

Mr. Nkrumah, in a tweet, noted that had it not been the government’s proactiveness, a chunk of the coronavirus carriers would have been among the populace and potentially spreading it.

“It is interesting to note that if we hadn’t as a country stepped up our approach to be ahead and go after the virus we would be reporting only 292 cases by now,” he posted on Monday.

https://twitter.com/konkrumah/status/1249631234201976832?s=21

His tweet comes at a time the Ghana Health Service says there are 566 confirmed cases in the country.

The country's 10 out of the 16 regions have now confirmed Covid-19 cases.

But the Information Minister notes that the situation could have been worse.

“The mix of measures to aggressively go in search of it while limiting importation is the reason for which we have found 274 more cases.

“The enhanced tracing and testing coupled with the mandatory quarantine systems is yielding results…

“Had we not adopted this approach, the 274 extra will be with us potentially continuously spreading the virus,” said Oppong Nkrumah.

Meanwhile, as part of measures to minimise the spread of the disease, President Nana Akufo-Addo, in a televised address on Thursday extended a two week lockdown on the capital, Accra, which is the epicentre of the pandemic in Ghana and parts of the Ashanti region.

The restrictions on movement of persons will be in force for another week. The ban on public gatherings across the country, has also been extended by two weeks.

Calling on Ghanaians to comply with these orders, Oppong Nkruma wrote: “We encourage all persons to comply with the measures and spread more knowledge and facts to help us all.”

There are also growing calls on the government to lockdown the entire country following reported cases across the other regions.

https://twitter.com/nykesse/status/1249645721298575360?s=21

These measures are being considered, government sources say.

Global cases, meanwhile, near two million.