Ghana reported its first case of COVID-19 in an announcement made in state TV by the Minister for Health, Hon. Kwaku Agyemang- Manu at the stroke of midnight on Thursday, March 12, 2020.
The Novel Coronavirus has a name: It is a lethal and deadly disease called “COVID-19”.
It is not called “COVID” as many choose to call it.
What is the meaning of COVID-19?
COVID-19 is a disease caused by a new strain of coronavirus discovered in 2019.
The full meaning of the deadly disease is as follows:
‘CO’ stands for corona, ‘VI’ for virus, ‘D’ for disease, and “-19” for year of discovery.
Formerly, this disease was referred to as ‘2019 novel coronavirus’ or ‘2019-nCoV.’
To simply call it “COVID” in reference to the Novel Coronavirus is wrong because the name given to it is “COVID-19”.
The deadly disease started in the Chinese city of Wuhan killing thousands of people in December 2019.
Within weeks, the disease spread across the world like wild fire killing thousands more in a matter of just one month without any cure for it.
On 30 January 2020, the Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the outbreak of COVID-19 to be a Public Health Emergency of International Concern and issued a set of Temporary Recommendations.
By the end of February 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared it a pandemic because it had crossed into all five continents of the world.
The deadly disease finally arrived at the shores of Ghana bringing along with it the first two cases recorded on March 12, 2020.
By the end of March 2020, Government imposed a 3-Week Lockdown with restrictions on human movement in the Accra, Tema and Kumasi Metropolis to help stop the rapid spread of the deadly virus.
Ghana records 9 more COVID-19 deaths and 7,850 active cases.
The deadly disease left in it’s wake a world total of 118 million people infected, 2.62 million dead and 81,299 recovering from the illness caused by COVID-19.
The United States of America was the worst hit nation with a little over half a million (529,000) deaths in one year.
Ghana’s share of the devastating disease are 86,837 total infections, 656 dead and 81,299 recoveries.
One year on, vaccines has been developed and approved by WHO. Inoculations have began worldwide, Ghana included.
It is expected that by June 2021, over 20 million people in Ghana would have been inoculated with the COVID-19 vaccine and by the end of the year 2021, the world would have acquired herd immunity.
