Ghana’s president warns of health system overload as Covid cases are on the rise

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Ghana is not yet near a peak seen in the first wave of infections in mid-last year, but could quickly reach that level if cases continue to increase at the current rate.

If they do, the president said he would impose another partial lockdown, despite his concerns about what that would do to one of West Africa’s largest economies.

“Our Covid-19 treatment centers have gone from zero patients to feeling full because of the increase in infections,” said the president. “At this current rate … our healthcare infrastructure will be overwhelmed.”

Across Africa, a second wave of coronavirus infects twice as many people a day as at the peak of last year’s first wave and has not yet peaked, according to the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The rise has sparked concern across the continent, where, unlike in Europe and the United States, cash-strapped governments have been unable to negotiate supply agreements with vaccine manufacturers, putting the burden on the curtailment for now.

The African Union is securing an additional 270 million doses of Covid vaccines for the continent

Akufo-Addo said details on vaccine access and a rollout plan would be announced “very soon”.

He said some people who came from abroad had tested positive for “new variants” of the virus, without giving details.

Last week, The Gambia registered the first two cases of the highly contagious variant of coronavirus first found in Great Britain, which appears to be the first confirmation of its presence in Africa.

“Work is underway to determine the presence and extent of the distribution of the new variants in the general population,” Akufo-Addo said.

.Source