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Deaths from COVID-19 in Ghana have risen to 713 following confirmation of eight more deaths by the Ghana Health Service (GHS).
The latest GHS update also indicated that 40 people were in serious condition and another 17 in critical condition.
However, the country’s active cases have dropped to 3,343 from a previous 3,621 despite the confirmation of 363 new infections across the country since the last update on Thursday, March 18, 2021.
The new infections come from tests conducted through March 15, 2021.
The country has also recorded 857 additional recoveries, bringing its total recoveries and downloads to 84,952 from previous 84,095.
The GHS said the remaining active cases were being handled at treatment sites and isolation centers across the country, and some were under home control.
Ghana has recorded a total of 89,008 cases of the virus since confirming its first two cases in March 2020.
Of the total confirmed cases, 31,013 were from General Surveillance; 56,712 of Enhanced Contact Tracking and 1,283 of international travelers disembarking at Kotoka International Airport (KIA) since it reopened on September 1, 2020.
In addition, 961,744 tests were carried out, of which 292,312 were for routine surveillance, 479,393 for contact tracing, and 190,039 for international travelers who arrived through the KIA.
The positivity rate is 9.3 percent.
Currently, all 16 regions have an active case.
The Greater Accra region remains the hotspot, accounting for nearly 50 percent (1,663) of active cases, with a cumulative case count of 49,370.
The Ashanti region has 293 active cases with a case count of 15,177, followed by the western region with 166 active cases and a cumulative of 5,602.
Others are: Eastern Region, 139 active cases and 4,036 accumulated; Central Region 328 active and 3,190 accumulated; Volta Region, 176 assets and 2,256 cumulative; East Bond Region 61 active and 1,316 accumulated, North Region 46 active and 1,576 accumulative, and Upper East Region 54 active and 1,277 accumulative.
The rest are: North Western Region, 20 active cases, 839 cumulative, Bono Region, 114 active, 1,262 cumulative, Ahafo Region, 11 active and 686 cumulative, Oti Region, 27 active and 376 cumulative, High West, 91 active and 456 cumulative , Savannah Region, 15 active and 112 cumulative, and Northeast, 36 active and 194 cumulative.
There are also 103 active cases of international travelers in the KIA.
Ghana began its mass vaccination exercise on March 2, this year after receiving some 600,000 doses of COVID-19 Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccines on February 24.
So far, a total of 405,000 people have been vaccinated against the virus until Thursday, March 18, 2021 in the first phase in the country.
The government said it hoped to vaccinate about 20 million of the population to stop the spread of the virus.