Claim: 8 coronavirus patients in Ghana have recovered
Source: Yen.com.gh and adomonline.com
Verdict: False
Researched by Rabiu Alhassan
The Ghana Health Service has rejected reports that 8 coronavirus patients in Ghana have recovered.
Social media including Facebook and Twitter have been buzzing with reports about the recovered patients and at a point, #8Ghanaians was trending as one of the most discussed topics on twitter in Ghana.
A website, worldometers.info was cited as the source for the information.
A screenshot of the worldometers.info website that has been widely circulated states that 8 patients out of the 16 confirmed coronavirus cases in Ghana have recovered.
Subsequently, some online news portals including adomonline.com and yen.com.gh published news articles to mainstream and confirm the reports.
Fact-check
“For them to say they have recovered, it means that symptoms have improved, and they have been retested and they are negative. We haven’t gone through the situation where we have tested anybody again following the treatment to indicate that they have completely recovered. So, I don’t know where this information is coming from. It is not from the Ghana Health Service.” The Director of Public Health, Ghana Health Service (GHS), Dr Badu Sarkodie stated in an interview with GhanaFact.
An independent check of the worldometers.info website by GhanaFact showed there was no such information on the platform.
The worldometers.info website has live statistics and coronavirus news by tracking the number of confirmed cases, recovered patients, and the death toll from all countries that have confirmed COVID 19 coronavirus cases.
Online portal Yen.com.gh,one of the digital platforms that mainstreamed the “false” story has published a rejoinder while adomonline.com has only pulled down the story completely from its platform.
Ghana’s case count
Ghana today confirmed 5 new coronavirus cases.
This brings to a total of 16 confirmed cases in Ghana, with no death.
The country first reported 2 coronavirus cases on March 12, which according to the Ghana Health Service were all “imported.”
However, according to the latest reports, three of the patients have no travel history.
