The Northern Region capital, Tamale, on Monday, May 11 recorded one death due to coronavirus.
The case was first reported at the Tamale Central Hospital, the Northern Regional Director of Health Services revealed.
At a press briefing in Tamale, Dr Eleeza John Bertson said the Region’s case count rose from 16 to nineteen 19 over the weekend, with an 80-year-old street vendor also infected.
“She reported at the Tamale Central Hospital and was initially being managed as a pneumonia case but she was later tested for Covid-19 and she tested positive.”
The deceased, who has already been buried by the Covid-19 burial team in the region, had no travel history.
“She sells oranges by the roadside,” Dr Bertson said. “It means she has been interacting with a lot of customers so it means she might have picked it there.”
The situation has necessitated an immediate contact tracing in both her home and where she sells her oranges.
“When we get to her house, we will get to know the kind of interaction she has had, if there is somebody who came from outside and had contact with somebody else which is possible, we will know.”
Dr Bertson also indicated that some 29 health workers who came into contact with her have undergone mandatory self-isolation while they wait for results of their samples, which are being tested at the Tamale Public Health and Reference Laboratory.
“She went through the OPD, admitted in the medical ward and later moved to the isolation center.”
One of the three recorded cases also came to the Region from the Upper East Region capital, Bolgatanga, after he had visited the region during his leave.
“The second case, a male actually lives and works here in Tamale, just happens to go on leave in Bolga and when he got back, we decided to conduct a baseline testing to ensure he hasn’t come with any baggage before he starts work and that is how we found out he was positive.”
The third case is also a male and a resident of Tamale but works in Salaga in the Savannah Region.
“The family is here in Tamale. He came down but was feeling unwell, so he reported to the hospital and was tested.”
The Tamale Public Health and Reference Laboratory, as of April 29, had tested some 720 samples of the novel coronavirus.
The samples were received from the Northern, Upper East, Upper West, Savannah, and North-East regions.
It received some 500 samples from the Upper East Region on Thursday, April 30 and some 100 more samples from the Northern Region same day.
