25 children contracted COVID-19, three die at KATH

The Child Health Directorate of the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH), Ghana’s second-largest health referral facility, has recorded 25 confirmed cases of COVID-19 since the outbreak of the pandemic.

Fourteen (14) of the cases resulting in two deaths were recorded last year, while the beginning of this year had also seen nine confirmed cases and one death, according to the authorities.

Professor Sampson Antwi, Head of the Directorate, briefing the media in Kumasi, said the latest confirmed cases involved an 11-day old baby.

He said three of the cases recorded in January, this year, had already been treated and the children discharged, while the rest were being dealt with. Prof. Antwi stressed that those cases recorded last year had an age range between three months to 14 years.

He described the development as worrying and cautioned the citizenry to endeavour to abide by the safety protocols since everybody was at risk.

“Our realisation is that the second wave of the pandemic could be more deadly given the high rate of infections and deaths globally,” he noted.

Prof. Antwi said the Hospital had created a holding area and an isolation centre to take care of children who show symptoms of the disease.

He assured that the authorities were up to the task, and had put in place adequate measures to manage the situation.

Meanwhile, the Ghana News Agency (GNA) has gathered that two of the children who tested positive for the disease since the beginning of this year, developed the COVID-19 symptoms while on admission at the ward.

The authorities after subjecting them to the requisite testing then isolated them when they tested positive.

A tour of some units at the hospital indicated that the safety protocols were being strictly adhered to and no visitor would be allowed entry without having his or her body temperature taken.

Additionally, a notice of ‘No Mask, No Entry’ had been posted at all entry points there.

Source: GNA