Ghana ranked 4th on Africa's most tested coronavirus countries

Ghana's effective response to the Coronavirus pandemic has gained her a recognition both at home and abroad.

The government's enhanced contact tracing of infected patients and its mass testing has brought the Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo government plaudits.

In a televised speech to Ghanaians last Sunday, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo claimed that Ghana has administered more tests per million of the population than any other country in Africa.

“Our country has administered more tests per million people than any other country in Africa, and, in fact, the World Health Organization... has reached out to us to share our sample-pooling experience with other African countries, so they can adopt this strategy and also ramp up their testing capabilities,” he said in his ninth address on the crisis.

However, according to statistics from the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, that claim cannot be true as Ghana actually ranks 4th on the list.

According to official figures from each country as of May 10, 2020, Nigeria has conducted 27,078 COVID-19 tests; South Africa, 341,336 tests; Ghana, 160,501 tests; Botswana, 9,540 tests; Mauritius, 73,572 tests; and Djibouti, 15,304 tests.

Mauritius, Botswana and Djibouti, while much smaller in population, they are ahead of Ghana because these countries have conducted relatively high numbers of tests.

When President Akufo-Addo made the claim, Ghana had conducted 5,300 tests for every million inhabitants -- higher than Nigeria’s 135 tests per million and Botswana’s 4,079 tests per million but below South Africa (5,808 per million), Djibouti (15,713 per million), and Mauritius (57,931 per million).

Source: pulse.com.gh