COVID-19 isolation centres in the Ashanti Region are full to capacity forcing the authorities to take the patients to the wards of some hospitals in the region.

The Ashanti Region has so far recorded 2,403 cases with 38 deaths.

It is the second region in Ghana with the highest number of cases after the Greater Accra Region.

Speaking at a press conference in Kumasi on Wednesday, 17 June 2020, the Ashanti Regional Medical Director of Health, Dr Emmanuel Tinkorang, noted that more beds are being secured for the treatment centres.

Dr Tinkorang said: “We’ve also secured seven beds at Suntreso hospital to support our treatment facilities and we are also negotiating with one of our senior doctors who has decided to give us his hospital to be used as a treatment centre. When that one is finally done, we hope that we can add about 100 beds to the treatment centres that we have to make sure that it will be up to 138 beds because the numbers that we have here and the number of cases that we have, are such that we cannot contain it”.

“The challenge we have here is the way cases are referred to our major treatment centre – Komfo Anokye. Most of the cases are being kept in various hospitals and when the situation gets worse, then they say go to Komfo Anokye, and by the time you get to Komfo Anokye, less than 24 hours, then you’re gone. I don’t think that is good enough. We need to build the capacity of the nurses there to identify the cases.”

Dr Tinkorang also called for an increase in the number of isolation centres in the region.

Dr Tinkorang further attributed the rise in the number of cases in the region to the refusal of residents in the region to observe safety protocols.

“We need to adhere to the protocols and then the guidelines, as has been prescribed by the President. Going round the region, especially walking in Kumasi, sometimes, you feel so disheartened because people don’t want to adhere to the protocols and the guidelines. Now, we don’t see the Veronica buckets anywhere; the social distancing protocol, nobody is observing it. You tell people to wear face masks and they’re insulting you. With this, we can’t fight COVID-19. People get conditions, we want to support them, they fight with us. How can we fight COVID-19 in this situation?”

He advised people of the region to adhere to the protocols to prevent further loss of lives.

Meanwhile, the Medical Director (Paediatrician) at the Kwadaso Seventh-Day Adventist (SDA) Hospital in the Ashanti Region, Harry Boateng, has died of COVID-19.