Presidential Advisor on Health, Dr Anthony Nsiah-Asare
The Presidential Advisor on Health, Dr Anthony Nsiah-Asare, has refuted claims that suggest that data on persons that have died from the novel coronavirus pandemic in the country have been manipulated.
He was reacting to claims that the government has been giving slanted political angles to information related to COVID-19, including expenditures and the dead, as well as recovered and positive cases.
He explained that the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 works with the figures given to it by the implementing agencies, which are the Ghana Health Service (GHS) and the Ministry of Health.
Dr Nsiah-Asare made the comment, particularly, in reaction to claims by pressure group OccupyGhana that the government officials in charge of the management of Covid-19 information have not been truthful with Ghanaians in that regard.
Speaking at a media briefing in Accra yesterday, the Presidential Advisor on Health said, “we do not generate any figures from the policy level. The Presidential Task Force and, for that matter, the presidency, doesn’t generate any figures. There is an implementing agency, so this Covid-19 fight is led by Ghana Health Service, the teaching hospitals, and the Ministry of Health.”
According to him, because the presidency does not generate the figures, it receives information in the same manner everybody else receives it.
“We see the figures just as you are seeing today, and we then use the figures to plan and monitor our situation,” he added.
OccupyGhana claims
OccupyGhana says it has detected some anomalies in the data that cannot be a true reflection of the situation on the ground.
The number of deaths as a result of the pandemic currently stands at 54, per the GHS figures.
But the pressure group claims this cannot be true, saying “there is cause to suspect that the death numbers are being massaged.”
The civil society organisation explained that “the reported 54 deaths so far, cannot be right. For instance, even though 38 deaths have been reported from the Ashanti Region alone, less than 20 of those deaths are included in the national count!”
Covid-19 cases
Taking his turn at the event, the Director-General of the Ghana Health Service, Dr Patrick Kumah-Aboagye, announced that Ghana’s COVID-19 case count has risen to 12,193. This comes after confirmation of 229 new cases.
According to him, the cases were recorded in nine regions, with the Ashanti Region confirming the most number of new cases.
Of the 229 new cases, 70 were from the Ashanti region; followed by the Central Region with 42 cases; and then 34 cases from the Savanna Region.
The number of recoveries has also slightly increased to 4,326. Four new deaths have also been confirmed.
The deaths, all of which were in Accra, include a woman and three men.
