KCCR Alerts Ghana Risks Getting Third Wave Of Covid-19
A behavioural study of the coronavirus situation in Ghana points to a high possibility of a third wave in the country between now and the end of this month unless steps are rolled out to quell it.
Researchers at the Global Health and Infectious Diseases Group of the Kumasi Centre for Collaborative Research (KCCR) say Ghana is likely to suffer the same fate as other countries in Africa and other parts of the world battling a third wave of the pandemic.
Infectious diseases expert and a Senior Research Fellow at KCCR, who played a key role in the study about the behaviour of the virus told Joy News earlier this week that policymakers must do something significant to prevent the imminent explosion in infection figures.
“If you look at the COVID numbers in Africa, it is clear that over the past two weeks, there is a minor surge. And if you understand how COVID moves, there is always this minor surge and then an explosion. Every part of the world has experienced a third wave and it starts like this.
“We had our first and second, what on earth makes us think that we cannot have our third? About a week ago, I called some highly placed figures in this country and said to them is ‘…I do foresee a third wave happening in the next two weeks or by the end of this month,” he said on Joy News monitored by myactiveonline.com
Last week, the World Health Organization (WHO) also warned that a sudden, sharp rise in coronavirus cases in many parts of Africa could amount to a continental third wave.
According to WHO, the third wave could present deeper trouble for a continent as immunisation drives have been crippled by shortfalls in funding and challenges with vaccine acquisition.
So far test positivity has risen in 14 African countries over the last seven days, with eight reporting a surge of over 30% in new cases, according to WHO.
In Ghana, a more active vaccination process could quell the dreaded third wave WHO is warning about, says Dr Amoasi.
“A lot will depend on a number of factors: which is how much vaccination we can get done. There might be a middle saving grace in there which will be the proportion of people in Ghana who may have been exposed and so have antibodies to SARS-COV-2 and this we really do not know. There is a study that suggests the numbers may be quite high and so the vaccination numbers that we need to arrive at herd immunity might actually be much lower than we think. Which will be very good,” he said.
General Secretary of Ghana Medical Association (GMA), Dr. Titus Beyuo, said he is not surprised by the predictions of the KCCR study.
“If you look at our attitude in Ghana, we start very well, we are about winning, then everybody goes to sleep and this thing comes hard at us. We saw this in November and December (2020), people got very reckless in their behaviour politically, the festive activities, people sounded caution but no one listened. At the end of the day we saw the impact in January (2021),” he said.
Ghana has so far vaccinated a total of 852,047 people with a bold target of inoculating at least 20 million Ghanaians by the close of the year. Active coronavirus cases stand at 1, 079 as at June 2, 2021, according to Ghana Health Service figures.
Source :Stella Annan |myactiveonline.com
