Hundreds of African residents and businessmen in China’s southern city of Guangzhou have been evicted from hotels and apartments as local health officials rollout a testing campaign for COVID-19, community leaders have told the BBC.

Those evicted say they are being discriminated against.

“They are accusing us of having the virus,” said Tobenna Victor, a Nigerian student in Guangzhou.

“We paid rent to them and after collecting rent they chased us out of the house. Since last night we have been sleeping outside.”

Businessman Lunde Okulunge Isidore, from the Democratic Republic of Congo, said: “They came to my house. They told me to wait after 24 hours for the result, [but] after 24 hours nobody contacted me.”

Some residents have told the BBC that they have been evicted from their apartments, others say that they have been put into forced quarantine without knowing the results of their tests.

On Tuesday, Chinese officials denied online rumours that the virus was spreading in African communities and that parts of the city where Africans reside were under lockdown.

Guangzhou is home to one of China’s largest African communities and has become a hub for African traders buying and selling goods to the continent.

There are rising concerns in China over the increase in the number of imported COVID-19 cases, which authorities fear could fuel a second outbreak.

Since March, Guangzhou has required people arriving from abroad to be quarantined for 14 days.

Source: BBC

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The Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology and Incas Diagnostics have been in constant communication with the Ministry of Health and the National Covid-19 Response Team in helping to improve the covid 19 test kit to enable it record results with 20 minutes unlike the already available kits that take longer hours for suspected patients to be confirmed positive or negative.

The KNUST-Incas Diagnostic technology uses a finger-prick blood to detect two different types of antibodies produced by the body when it is fighting off Covid-19 infection at least seven days after infection – whether the person is showing symptoms or not. It also enables decentralized testing to be done anywhere without requiring any equipment. However, it requires little technical training for those performing the test.

This great initiative was also supported by the Scientists from the Kumasi Centre for Collaborative Research (KCCR), Vice-Chancellor of KNUST, Professor Kwasi Obiri-Danso the Centre for Advanced Rapid Diagnostics, Mologic, UK, Mastercard Foundation through the Ghana Tech Lab, the Ghana Association of Medical Laboratory Scientists and Dext Technologies, Kumasi.

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Seventeen infected persons have recovered from the novel coronavirus in Ghana, according to the Ghana Health Service.

“We have 17 persons who have recorded double negatives and are obviously clinically cured,” Dr. Patrick Aboagye, the Director-General of the Ghana Health Service disclosed at a press briefing on Tuesday.

“Currently, we have a definition of recovered as those who are positive and have recorded consecutive negative [tests],” he explained.

Dr. Aboagye assured that the treatment of infected persons was going well noting that, “case management is very good especially for those who come early.”

According to him, 83 people are in recovery status with 66 people in treatment already having tested negative for the virus once.

Two hundred and eight of the infected persons are well and in mild condition with two who remain critically ill.

A total of 566 novel coronavirus cases have so far been recorded in Ghana with eight deaths.

The Greater Accra Region has the most cases with 452; the Ashanti Region, 49; Eastern Region, 32; Northern Region, 10; Volta Region, nine; Upper West Region, seven; Upper East Region, four; North East Region, one; Western Region, one and the Central Region with one.

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GH COVID-19 Tracker App has been launched to help in the country’s fight against the virus. The mobile app which is user friendly and easy to download will help in tracing and monitoring persons affected by the virus is powered by the Ministry of Communication.

The government will make the app available on Android and iOS platforms for downloads later this week.

During the launch of the App, Dr. Bawumia said, “It will help us easily track people with the virus, [and] those who have had contact with others. It is also useful in quarantine reliability, in case certain individuals need self-quarantine.”

According to him Ghana is one of the few countries to develop such useful technologies to support the fight against the virus in the country.

“We are ahead of the countries such as the USA and UK in this and we are also pursuing a strategy of aggressive testing. In terms of testing of the Coronavirus, Ghana, on the basis of the available data we have, is in the top 20 of countries in the world and on the basis of this data too, in Africa, we are number one per capita in terms of testing. In terms of numbers of tests, South Africa is number one and we are second but in terms of testing per capita in terms of testing per our population, we are leading in the continent.”

“We have tested 37,954 people and if you look at Africa alone, the data seems to show the total number of tests is under 10,000 and Ghana has tested 37,954 of the said number and we’ve increased the testing centres to six but what is significant with Ghana’s approach is we are chasing the virus and trying to get ahead of it,” he added.

The App will help track telephone numbers of people who have recently been to certain countries around the world. The Ghana Immigration Service (GIS) will use the information to determine who to provide an extra layer of screening.

The App will also help in checking for COVID-19 symptoms and pertinent risk factors.

It will also answer COVID-19 questions as well as provide digital assistance.

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Kojo Oppong Nkrumah has mentioned that the Minister of Health, Kwaku Agyeman Manu “misspoke” when he commented about the Bank of Ghana Hospital

– Kwaku Agyeman Manu on 1^st April, 2020 mentioned that The Bank Hospital would only be used for treating VIPs and Staff of Bank of Ghana. This got Ghanaians asking so many questions as to why the facility would only serve some selected group of people.

However, the Bank released an official press statement signed by its secretary indicating that the facility would be open to the public.

But Oppong Nkrumah, speaking on Citi TV, admitted that his colleague might have not given the right information

“I think he probably misspoke and the Bank has provided some clarity,” Mr. Nkrumah said. The Bank of Ghana clarified that the hospital will be “available for the benefit of the general public.”

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The Minister for information, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah on behalf of the President in a tweet said that “President Akufo-Addo has by a new Executive Instrument, EI 66, extended the closure of Ghana’s borders by another two weeks effective midnight tomorrow April 5.”

“Mr. President believes that these tough decisions are necessary to protect the lives of Ghanaians despite the inconvenience it causes to many,” he added.

The extension of the border closure is to ensure that no COVID-19 cases are not imported into the country while contact tracing and testing which is currently happening is being focused on.

This directive by the President is expected to start today at midnight

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1. Justification of border closure and the mandatory isolation was successful hence it will remain closed until further notice.
2. About 10,000 contacts traced to be tested in the coming week. This has been successful.
3. 378 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Ghana.
4. Restriction of movement has been extended to One More Week subject to review.
5. Electricity Bills for lifeline consumers to be paid fully by Government. For all other categories, govt will pay 50% using March bills as a benchmark. This will be for the next 3 months – April to June
6. Excesses in the lockdown will be investigated to the later.
7. President acknowledged all countries, international institutions, Ghanaian institutions and individuals who have donated to the country so far.
8. Don’t organize big gatherings this Easter.

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The Ghana Information Minister Kojo Oppong Nkrumah has mentioned that it is possible for the government of the day to tackle covid-19 cases in the country due to the resilient economy it has built within the few years of in power.

This comes after some concerns have been raised by Ghanaians after the President announced in is last address to the nation that 88 hospitals would be built across all regions in the country

However, the Minister has assured that “our current economic positioning is a major reason for which we are able to marshal the resources to execute a good number of the interventions we are introducing today. And moving forward, the state of our economy will be key in our ability to introduce the necessary interventions to win the various battles in this war. it makes sense why some may question whether or not Ghana can afford all the interventions the President has outlined in the past about 8weeks of the Covid-19 response program. This question is justified because looking at our recent economic position, and the gains made recently as a nation, there is the genuine fear that we may be unable to afford the interventions or may end up overstretched if indeed we push through to execute them all. Between Jan 2017 and now, however, Ghana has made major strides in correcting the precarious economic conditions it found itself in. Our Fiscal position has improved and our Macro position has significantly improved. The combined effect of improved fiscal position and improved macro position is what enables us to afford the interventions which are being introduced as part of the covid-19 response program. We have significantly improved national revenues, trimmed our deficit and yielded a resilient macro position against which we can finance the intervention programs” he added.

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As at April 22, 2020 120 COVID-19 recovery cases have been confirmed in Ghana.

This was announced by the Director-General of the Ghana Health Service, Dr. Patrick Kumah Aboagye.

“Ghana now has 1,154 cases so far. Out of this, we have had about 120 having recovered,” Dr. Aboagye said.

He further gave a breakdown of recovery cases in the affected regions in the country.

• Ga East Municipal Hospital – 82
• UGMC – 17
• Ridge hospital – 3
• 37 Military Hospital – 4
• Tema General Hospital – 1
• Ashanti Region – 6
• Wa – 1
• Tamale – 6

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African leaders within the ECOWAS community will be holding a virtual summit today to intensify the fight against COVI-19.

Already, some efforts have been made in the fight against COVID-19 by financially supporting its member states in purchasing medical supplies and making them available for use in the various countries.

As of April 21, 2020, available data suggest that the 15 Member States have recorded 5,774 confirmed cases, 1,616 recoveries, 147 deaths, and 4,011 active cases. The Ministers in charge of Finance and the governors of central banks from the region also held a virtual meeting on Tuesday, April 21, 2020, on the current situation within the ECOWAS community

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