Yaw Osafo-Marfo: hit by coronavirus

The Senior Minister of Ghana, Yaw Osafo-Marfo, has tested positive for the novel coronavirus, Minister for Information Kojo Oppong-Nkrumah said.

He was the fourth minister to be affected by the virus.

This development came just three days after president Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo went into self-isolation after coming into contact with a COVID-19 patient.

At the bi-weekly COVID-19 briefing on Tuesday, the information minister said his senior colleague had asked him to disclose the information to Ghanaians.

Ghana’s Minister for Health, Minister for Regional Re-organization, and the Deputy Minister for Trade and Industry had all tested positive for the pandemic.

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The country lost its forestry commission chief to the virus on July 1.

The health minister, Kwaku Agyemang-Manu, who has just recovered from COVID-19, said over the weekend that the government and the frontline health workers at the forefront of the fight against the pandemic were fatigued by the increasing infection rate.

Agyemang-Manu was correct as the number of COVID-19 cases  increased to 21,077.

Ghana Health Service confirmed  a record 992 new infections late Monday.

The GHS said 1,200 confirmed cases under treatment had recovered, bringing the total number of recoveries to 16,070.

The latest data reported seven new deaths among the confirmed cases, increasing the COVID-19 death toll in Ghana to 129, with 4,878 active cases.

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In the meantime, the country’s premier referral medical facility, the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital, has announced the suspension of non-emergency surgical cases, as 91 of its medical professionals had tested positive for the virus.