The Upper East Regional Director of the Ghana Health Service says the Region has recorded the first death and four additional confirmed cases of Covid-19, bringing the total number of confirmed cases to eight.

A 33-year old pregnant woman was the first reported Covid-19 case in the Region, which subsequently increased to four after laboratory investigations of her contacts tested positive.

Dr Winfred Ofosu, who made the announcement in a press release he signed on the updates of Covid-19 in the Region, said his outfit received laboratory results of four cases in the early hours of Thursday.

“Three are contacts of the first confirmed case and for the first time, one of the cases was detected through routine surveillance in the Bawku Municipality,” he said.

The Director indicated that a detected case in the Bawku Municipality passed on before the laboratory results were received from the Kumasi Centre for Collaborative Research (KCCR).

He said the burial was appropriately supervised prior to the release of the results, adding, “we have initiated steps to communicate the results to affected persons and to immediately identify all contacts of the four new cases for immediate quarantine.”

Dr Ofosu commended the public for their cooperation in the fight against the virus and urged residents in the Region to remain calm as the authorities worked to bring the situation under control.

He has, however, called on all municipal and district assemblies in the Region to close their markets temporarily or draw a time table for traders due to non-observance of social distancing.

He observed that the overcrowding at those markets could aid the rapid spread of the Covid-19.

Dr Ofosu made the call after he received some items to help fight the disease from a Civil Society Organisation comprising natives of Bolgatanga, Nabdam, Bongo and Tongo (BONABOTO) in Bolgatanga.

The items included Veronica buckets, alcohol-based hand sanitizers, boxes of handwashing soap and gloves.

Dr Ofosu expressed gratitude to BONABOTO for the support and stated that at the onset of the pandemic, BONABOTO had been complementing government’s efforts in tackling the menace.

It had also supported the Directorate in developing educational messages on the pandemic in local languages for radio broadcast.

He said government alone could not fight the disease and implored corporate bodies, Non-Governmental Organisations and individuals to complement efforts at tackling the canker.

Dr Ofosu urged the people not to panic but rather adhere strictly to the President’s directives and the World Health Organisation’s protocols on the disease.

He said as part of measures to curb the spread of the pandemic, many interventions including the distribution of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) and the training of more health staff on it was ongoing in the Region.

He later distributed the items to the beneficiary district health directorates including the Bolgatanga Municipal, Bolgatanga East, Bongo, Nabdam and the Talensi.

Mr Esmond Agurgo Balfour, the Regional Chairman of BONABOTO, who presented the items, commended the staff of the Ghana Health Service (GHS) and other professional bodies in the Region for working hard to help curb the spread of the COVID-19.

He appealed to residents to obey the preventive protocols, particularly social distance and constant handwashing with soap and running water.