Drawing on experiences in other countries to improve Ghana’s response to COVID-19

Abstract

In December 2019, a local outbreak of pneumonia of initially unknown cause was detected in Wuhan (Hubei, China), and was quickly determined to be caused by a novel coronavirus, named severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) (1). This new coronavirus was previously not identified in humans. The new coronavirus has case fatality rate of 2.5% (2, 3). However, the case fatality rate have exceeded the initial estimates of 2.5 to about 8.8% by 25th March 2020(4). It is a zoonotic coronavirus similar to SARS and Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS), and named coronavirus disease of 2019 (C0VID-19)(5). The outbreak of 2019 novel coronavirus diseases (COVID-19) in Wuhan, China spread quickly to every Province in mainland China and to 201 other countries by March 25 2020(2). Human coronaviruses cause mild disease similar to a common cold, while others cause more severe disease such as MERS - Middle East Respiratory Syndrome and SARS – Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (6).