General news of Tuesday 19 January 2021
Source: Happy 98.9FM
2021-01-19
Director of Health Promotion at the Ghana Health Service (GHS), Dr Dacosta Aboagye
The Ghanaian Health Service (GHS) has announced that the new strain of the COVID-19 pandemic has a higher and faster infection rate than the first strain.
The director of health promotion at the Ghana Health Service (GHS), dr. Dacosta Aboagye, said that the new strain of the virus is transmitted between fifty to seventy (50-70) times faster.
According to him, Ghana has recorded cases of two different strains of the virus. One from the United Kingdom and another from South Africa.
‘Both variants spread very fast and I think they have the same symptoms as the first version of the virus. But the only difference is that the transfer is very fast. The new variants move between 50-70 times faster than the normal we know about ”.
He noted that the various tribes were imported to the country via the Kotoka International Airport (KIA), but these individuals were placed under isolation.
‘We all know that with the reopening of our borders we required everyone who enters the country to come along with a PCR test of their country of origin, and upon their arrival in Ghana they had to undergo the antigen test and ask to isolate themselves.
“However, we have recently changed our policy and insisted that anyone who tested positive for COVID-19 be housed in our facilities for a second test.”
Dr. Dacosta noted that for the second test, the positive cases were done by genetic sequencing, and that was when “we noticed that they were infected with the new variants from the UK and South Africa”.
The director of health promotion at the GHS assured the population that the positive cases of the new variants in isolation and treatment centers under the Ghana Health Service are being addressed.
Background
Information from the Center for Disease Control (CDC) indicates that several COVID-19 variants are circulating worldwide.
In the United Kingdom (UK) a new variant called B.1.1.7 has emerged with an extraordinarily large number of mutations. This variant spreads easier and faster than other variants.
This variant was first detected in September 2020 and is currently widespread in London and south-east England. It has since been detected in numerous countries around the world, including the United States and Canada.
In South Africa, another variant called 1,351 originated, independent of the variant found in the United Kingdom. This variant, which was originally detected in early October, shares some mutations with the variant detected in the United Kingdom. There have been cases caused by this variant outside South Africa, but it has not been detected in the USA.
In Brazil, a variant called P.1 has emerged that has been identified in four Brazilian travelers who were tested during the routine investigation at Haneda Airport outside Tokyo, Japan. This variant contains a set of additional mutations that can affect its ability to be recognized by antibodies.
These variants appear to spread more easily and faster than other variants, which could lead to more cases of COVID-19. Currently, there is no evidence that these variants cause serious illness or increased risk of death.
However, an increase in the number of cases will put more pressure on healthcare resources, leading to more hospitalizations and possibly deaths.