Epidemiology of COVID-19 outbreak in Ghana, 2020.
Ghana Med J
; 54(4 Suppl): 5-15, 2020 Dec.
Article
in English
| MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-1436189
ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE:
Describe the epidemiology of COVID-19 cases detected in the first four months of the pandemic in Ghana by person, place and time to provide an understanding of the local epidemiology of the disease.METHODS:
We conducted an exploratory descriptive study of all confirmed COVID-19 cases in Ghana from March 12 to June 30, 2020. Data was merged from the country's electronic databases, cleaned and summarized using medians, proportions and geospatial analysis.DESIGN:
A cross-sectional study design.SETTING:
Ghana.PARTICIPANTS:
All confirmed COVID-19 cases in Ghana from March 12 to June 30, 2020.INTERVENTIONS:
None. MAIN OUTCOMEMEASURES:
Epidemiological characterization of all confirmed COVID-19 cases recorded from March 12 - June 30, 2020 in Ghana by person, place and time.RESULTS:
A total of 17,763 cases were recorded with median age (IQR) of 33years (One month to 85 years). Among the confirmed cases, 10,272 (57.8%) were males and 3,521 (19.8%) were symptomatic with cough recorded in 1,420 (40.3%) cases. The remaining 14,242 (80.2%) were asymptomatic. Greater Accra region recorded the highest number of confirmed cases 11,348 (63.9%). All 16 administrative regions had recorded cases of COVID-19 by June 30, 2020 due to internal migration between the hotspots and other regions. The epidemiological curve showed a propagated outbreak with 117 deaths (CFR= 0.67%) recorded.CONCLUSION:
A propagated outbreak of COVID - 19 was confirmed in Ghana on March 12, 2020. Internal migration from hotspots to other regions led to the spread of the virus across the nation. Majority of cases were asymptomatic.FUNDING:
The COVID-19 pandemic response and writing workshop by the Ghana Field Epidemiology and Laboratory Training Programme (GFELTP) was supported with funding from President Malaria Initiative - CDC, and Korea International Cooperation Agency (on CDC CoAg 6NU2GGH001876) through AFENET.Keywords
Full text:
Available
Collection:
International databases
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Disease Outbreaks
/
Disease Transmission, Infectious
/
SARS-CoV-2
/
COVID-19
Type of study:
Observational study
/
Prognostic study
/
Randomized controlled trials
Limits:
Adolescent
/
Adult
/
Aged
/
Child
/
Child, preschool
/
Female
/
Humans
/
Infant
/
Male
/
Middle aged
Country/Region as subject:
Africa
Language:
English
Journal:
Ghana Med J
Year:
2020
Document Type:
Article
Affiliation country:
Gmj.v54i4s.3
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