The Director General of Ghana Health Service, Dr Patrick Kuma-Aboagye, says a third wave of Covid-19 could occur if the current disregard for safety protocols, especially holding of social events, continues.

"The threat of the third wave is very real. The third wave of Covid-19 could occur if the attitude of the citizenry remains unchanged," he said.

As of July 17, Ghana has recorded a total of 99,734 Covid-19 positive cases with 817 deaths. The country’s active cases are 3,466, thus making health authorities worried.

According to Dr Kuma-Aboagye, Ghana’s health system has some “inherent strengths”. These include, training of critical staff and provision of equipment as well as increase in the number of treatment centres from 2 to 70 since 2020.

Speaking at two-day high level strategic meeting on Covid-19 in Kumasi, Dr Kuma-Aboagye explained why the country has been experiencing an upsurge in cases since December.

“Currently, there is non-adherence to Covid-19 safety protocols. Other threats include outbreaks of cases in neighbouring countries, surges in Ashanti and Greater Accra, which is the main hotspot in Ghana, low vaccination coverage and the entry of the Delta variant into Ghana and lastly but not the least, an outbreak in some of our schools," he said.

“Capacity for case management has been strengthened with an increase in the number of treatment centres from 2 to 70 currently, with a treatment centre in each region. Training of critical staff and provision of equipment has also been implemented.

The establishment of Ghana Infectious Disease Center is one and the establishment of the Electronic Data System for surveillance data and collection, a robust laboratory capacity from 2 in early 2020 to  400 currently. We also have the capacity for Genomic Sequencing,” he said.

“However, all this capacity can be overwhelmed if we do not avert a third wave, especially driven by Delta variant, which is highly transmissible,” Dr Kuma-Aboagye warned.

Meanwhile, Dr Kuma-Aboagye says a new proposal on funerals is being developed to curb the spread of coronavirus through social events.

He spoke to the media at the end of the two-day high level strategic meeting on Covid-19 in Kumasi.

“The protocols that have been designed include how funerals etc should be organized,” he said.

“We are coming up with a proposal that limits the spread, that makes it safer for people to go ahead and have their funerals.”

"We think that such a deep cultural thing is not something you can just wish away and so we have a draft protocol that we are sharing to ensure that we still have our funerals in safety,” Dr. Kuma-Aboagye added.