Ghana’s Minister of Health has said the government intends deploying drones to deliver samples and personal protective equipment, PPEs, to hard-to-reach areas following the confirmation of 10 new cases of COVID-19 in Tamale, Northern Region and the subsequent setting up of a quarantine centre there.

Briefing the media on Sunday, 29 March 2020, Mr Agyeman-Manu said: “We have now created a quarantine centre at Tamale and this afternoon we have put in 10 tested positive cases”.

“All the 10 in Tamale are foreign nationals. Information we have from the case management people is that all those who tested positive are in very good condition. They have started engaging them,” he said.

He added: “We are also deploying the facilities with drones to start flying some of the samples and protective products. This network is seriously triggered with the support of the military and we believe we can reach anybody as quickly as we have to”.

Ghana case count is now 152 with five deaths.

The disease has now reached four of the sixteen regions: Upper West region – 1, Ashanti Region – 8, Northern Region – 10, and Greater Accra region – 133 cases (including 79 people mandatory quarantine)

The President, on Friday, announced a partial lockdown of Greater Accra and Greater Kumasi, as part of moves to mitigate the spread of the virus. It takes effect from Monday.

Meanwhile, Information Minister Kojo Oppong Nkrumah has urged Ghanaians not to withhold information from health officials when engaging them on COVID-19 suspicions, since such a situation exposes health workers to the risk of contracting the disease.

A situation like that, he said, has compelled 15 health personnel to self-isolate.

“We had recorded incidents where persons, who eventually test positive, initially withhold relevant information from doctors and nurses. Take note; it puts our health workers at unnecessary risk. We have instances where about 15 or 16 workers have to be put in self-isolation.”

“What that means is that they are first of all at risk and secondly, you are reducing the number of health workers that we have to attend to so please you have no reason or basis to withhold relevant information,” he said at the media briefing.