These numbers were detected from Enhanced Contact Tracing Exercise with additional one from routine surveillance going on in the region.

Fifteen of the 19 positive cases were contacts of the six quarantined travelers in Aflao who were confirmed positive on April 12 this year, while the remaining three who tested positive are contacts of cases confirmed positive in Hohoe.

The remaining contact who tested positive is a 71-year-old woman who is closely associated with a case in Ho.

Dr. Archibald Yao Letsa, Volta Regional Minister in a press release signed and copied to the Ghana News Agency (GNA) said the Regional Public Health Emergency Management Committee (RPHEMC) decided to bring the actual number of COVID-19 cases as declared by the Regional Directorate of Health to the public domain and said all the cases were in isolation and responding to treatment.

He noted that the one additional case detected from routine surveillance was a 45-year-old man who returned to Kpando from Accra on April 20 to seek medical treatment after he started experiencing worsening respiratory symptoms whilst in Accra.

The Regional Minister said all cases detected were as a result of public health interventions put in place to promptly detect and isolate all cases.

Dr. Letsa said the Region’s response activities had been significantly enhanced by the certification of the University of Health and Allied Sciences (UHAS) laboratory to test for the disease while further steps had been taken in collaboration with other stakeholders to rapidly expand the capacity of the laboratory.

He noted that the Public Health Emergency Management Committee based on technical advice, sanctioned the mass testing of groups with relatively higher risks to enable the region get “a firmer grasp” on the transmission of the virus in emerging hot spots.

The Minister commended citizens who had, “so far complied with all preventive measures despite the unfavourable consequences that come with it in some instances” and cautioned those who failed to implement the preventive measures to do so forthwith as they posed a danger to themselves and the society in general.

Dr. Letsa urged the citizenry to continue observing all precautionary and preventive measures put in place in the fight against the corona virus pandemic.