We are nowhere near our peak of Covid-19 infections – Pharmacist counters GHS claim

Pharmacist and a fellow at the Centre for Democratic Development (CDD) Ghana has countered the claim that the country had reached its peak of coronavirus infections.

Dr Kwame Asiedu Sarpong told Kojo Yankson on Joy FM’s Super Morning Show that the multiplicity of factors that impact the spread of the disease doesn’t support the assertion by the Ghana Health Service (GHS).

“The fact that you are testing more means you will identify more but it also means the disease is spreading more and that’s why in our opinion we are nowhere near our peak.”

“When there are a number of factors at play that make the disease spread, then you’re talking about a graph that is mimicking the polynomial curve.

“Under those circumstances, you are nowhere near your peak because you need to decrease the number of factors that are impacting on your spread,” he said.

His comments follow the revelation by the GHS Director of Public Health, Dr Ebenezer Badu Sarkodie that the case count of Covid-19 infections has peaked.

But according to the pharmacist, the reproductive number which refers to the number of people who get infected from one person shows whether or not the factors of spread are prevalent.

He cited research stating that when the R naught is high, at least 80% of all contacts must be traced to bring the number to one. However, “we are nowhere near that”.

The pharmacist explained that the curve only flattens when the number of active cases are dropping and this happens when the recoveries are more than the number of new cases recorded.

“I have still not head anybody tell us what our nominal R nought was, what our nominal R nought is now and how it is trending. On that basis how do I agree with a simple empirical assertion that we are approaching our peak? All the numbers don’t agree,” he said.

Meanwhile, Dr Sarpong stated that an estimation of Ghana’s is greater than 2.5, however, this is subject to change depending on the interventions made.

“Currently we have about 2,719 infections in a population that is 30 million and there is a huge scope of people to get infected. Our R-value is greater than 2.5, our doubling time is less than a week,” the doctor stated.

Ghana’s current Coronavirus count stands at 2,719 with 294 recoveries and 18 deaths.

Source: myjoyonline