The Ghana battle front in the global war against the deadly corona virus pandemic has suffered a major breach as the infections have now localized in communities.
Two Ghanaian ladies resident in the national capital, Accra, and one male resident of Tema have all tested positive for the virus even though they have no travel history outside the country.
Also, in Kumasi, a Lebanese businessman resident in the city who has not traveled out of Ghana has tested positive for the virus.
What this means is that, the pattern of infections that pertained to Ghana in the last several weeks, in which only people who had traveled into the country from abroad carried the virus has now broken. The virus is now among the local population.
Health Minister, Kweku Agyemang Manu, has described the development as Ghana’s usher into “dangerous times.”
The localized infections are part of five new infections that have raised Ghana’s total number of infections, from 11 yesterday, to 16 today.
All the five new infections have been registered in Greater Accra. The Lebanese resident in Kumasi is one of two cases that have long been in quarantine in the Ashanti regional capital.
The five new cases comprise a 29 year old Ghanaian lady resident of Accra with no history of travel outside of the country and a 34 year old Ghanaian lady also resident of Accra who is said to have come in contact with a confirmed case at her work place.
The third is a 53 year old Ghanaian man resident in Tema, who also has no history of travel outside of the country.
The other two of the five cases comprise a 41 year old Ghanaian male who arrived in Ghana by KLM on the 15th of March 2020 from Amsterdam, where he had been contact with infected family members.
He is said to have been exhibiting full blown symptoms while on the flight to Ghana, coughing, sniffling and sneezing in the midst of other passengers.
The fifth case is that of a 36 year old Ghanaian male who had only recently returned from Paris, France. The date of his arrival is not yet known.
The community infection phase that the virus has taken raises the risk profile for every Ghanaian very high and makes it even more imperative for prescribed social distancing lifestyle practices prescribed by experts.