The Western Region has overtaken the Ashanti Region as the country's latest Covid-19 hotspot, the Director-General of the Ghana Health Service (GHS), has said.

“The new hotspot is in the Western region which reported about 57 new cases. It is mainly the Sekondi-Takoradi municipality and the metropolis and then Tarkwa," Dr Patrick Kuma-Aboagye told journalists at a press conference in Accra, Tuesday.

He added that "a team will be going to see how we can quickly assist the region just like we did in Obuasi. We are rolling out enhanced contact tracing to ensure containment."

“As of May 24, a total of about 156 new cases have been recorded in Ghana and this goes to show the new trend of showing much fewer cases," he said.

Ghana’s coronavirus case tally has reached 6,964 with 2,097 recoveries as of Tuesday, May, 26.

15 of these cases were described as severe but do not need ventilators since they are not in a critical condition.

These new positive cases were identified in five of the 16 regions.

According to him, Greater Accra alone contributed 72 new cases to the total figure.

The Western Region came second with 57 cases and Central reporting 13 cases.

A surveillance report released by GHS last week indicated that there hasn’t been any real shift in the cases in Obuasi in the Ashanti Region, which has become a hotspot.

Dr Patrick Aboagye revealed that a couple had been key in the spread of Covid-19 to some people in Obuasi in the Ashanti Region.

According to him, the pair who are traders were unknowingly carrying the virus while going about their usual activities in the central market.

According to Dr Franklin Bekoe, the Head of Disease Surveillance of the Service, in his presentation after a visit to Obuasi explained that the increasing cases can be largely attributed to the population density.

He also mentioned noncompliance on the part of residents to safety protocols like social distancing.