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COVID-19: Government reviews discharge policy

The government has reviewed its discharge policy on patients of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19).

With the policy, asymptomatic patients would be discharged in 10 days after showing no signs of the disease.

“For asymptomatic patients, 10 days after symptoms of onset, plus at least three days without symptoms, you are discharged without a test,” the Director General of the Ghana Health Service (GHS), Dr Patrick Kuma-Aboagye has announced at a press briefing in Accra yesterday.

The days for discharge of symptomatic patients would however remain 14 after two negative tests.

He indicated that, the review was done in accordance with the World Health Organisation (WHO) and Ghana’s clinical management guidelines on the disease.

In addition, Dr Kuma-Aboagye said, the revised policy was to allow the management of the country’s COVID-19 cases focus on newly infected patients and to decongest its holding centres.

“This is to allow us more time to give attention to those who are newly positive, and also create place in our facilities to be able to take care of more cases,” he said.

Dr Kuma-Aboagye used the platform to explain discharges, saying, discharged persons are those who are healthy, with no traces of virus in their blood and poses no risk to others.

During his turn, the Director of Public Health at the GHS, Dr Badu Sarkodie also provided details of the country’s cases of COVID-19, which showed that the cases had almost reached 13, 000.

He said that, as of June 16, the number of COVID-19 cases in Ghana was 12,929, resulting from 339 new cases from 36 districts in nine out of the 16 regions.

The 12,929 was a combination of 8,395 active cases and 4,468 recoveries and 66 deaths.

Meanwhile, 14 patients of the COVID-19 are critically ill, with four others on ventilators.

The regional breakdown comprised of 154 cases from 17 districts in the country’s regional capital, Accra, with 58 cases from two districts in the Western Region.

The Ashanti Region has recorded 41 new cases from two districts, while the Central Region’s new cases were 38, all from one district.

Meanwhile, the Eastern and Volta regions have 15 and 13 newly confirmed COVID-19 cases respectively, from a total of three districts in the two regions.

The remaining 21 cases are from five districts in three regions namely Bono East nine, Northern nine and the Savannah two.

BY: FRANCIS NTOW

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