The Ghana Medical Association, GMA, is concerned about the population’s substantial increase in COVID-19-related fatalities and severe illness.
According to GMA, the trend does not seem to be good, since health facilities appear to be overburdened at the time.
Dr. Justice Yankson, the association’s General Secretary, said that the majority of the country’s Intensive Care Units and High Dependency Units are at capacity, making it impossible to admit more COVID-19 patients.
He explained that among other things, is as a result of the delta variant’s high contagiousness and a lack of public commitment to preventative measures.
“At this time, it is apparent that the majority of our severe and critically sick COVID-19 patients are experiencing some difficulty in terms of where to treat them. The majority of our Intensive Care Units and High Dependency Units, which have been managing a large number of these severe and critically sick Covid-19 patients, are overcrowded and overloaded, which is not healthy for anyone,” he added.
Ghana is thought to be undergoing a third wave of COVDI-19 infection as a result of an exponential rise in active cases.
As of August 6, 2021, there are approximately 6,922 active cases and 880 total fatalities, up from less than 1,000 instances only two months earlier.
The death toll indicates that at least 26 individuals died of the illness in only a few days in August.
Dr. Yankson believes the issue is very concerning.
He thinks that the cause for the development is a combination of late reporting to health facilities for treatment and difficulties accessing ICUs to treat COVID-19.
“What is happening is that the death rate is increasing, and we are beginning to see a significant increase in the number of people dying as a result of sometimes late reporting to the hospital or difficulty getting them to these high dependency units and intensive care units, which is not a good thing.”
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