The Vice President, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia has stated that the gathering
and availability of data has played a significant role in Ghana's battle against
COVID-19 so far.
Identifying suspected cases, testing and tracing contacts of confirmed cases
and treating them have become the most effective way of tackling the virus
around the world, and with nearly 40,000 tests conducted so far, Ghana is
ranked among the top 20 countries in the world as far as per capita testing of
COVID-19 is concerned.
Speaking at the launch of (an app to track COVID-
19 cases in Ghana) in Accra on Monday, 13th April, 2020, the Vice
President, who is the Chairman of Ghana's COVID-19 Daily Monitoring
Team, noted that Government’s reliance on data of cases have become
Ghana's biggest weapon in the fight against the Coronavirus.
"Data is our most powerful weapon in the fight against Covid-19. You cannot
fight what you cannot see," said Dr. Bawumia.
Apart from the vigorous preventive campaign the government has launched,
the decision to close down the county's ports of entry, ban public gatherings
and institute a partial lockdown in some parts of the country, the Vice
President said, Government has resorted to a scientific way of curbing the
spread of the Coronavirus by relying on data from various sources to identify
suspected individuals for a quick response.
On the GH Covid-19 Tracker app, Dr. Bawumia said the app will
significantly boost government’s main strategy in combating the virus, which
he labeled as "the three T" strategy of testing, tracing contacts and treatment.
"Our focus has been on tracing, testing, treatment, as well as observing social
distancing and these have been made possible through data, and this COVID-
19 Tracker will significantly help.”
With the launch of the GH COVID-19 tracker app, Ghana's COVID-19 team
has a mobile app with rapid response features for contact tracing and
symptoms tracking, which will ultimately lead to more testing – a
development the Vice President described as a great step.
"The launching of the GH COVID-19 Tracker App today is yet another step
by the government to leapfrog technology in finding solutions to the havoc
the COVID-19 pandemic is wreaking around the world."
"This is another weapon in our arsenal. It will provide us real time data and
allow a quick, early response by our professionals," Dr. Bawumia said.
The COVID-19 Tracker App, through the common platform of mobile
networks, is able to trace contacts of persons infected by the virus, show
where they have been in recent time, through various telephone related data,
and link such people to health professionals for urgent action to be taken.
The app, through same telephone related data, is also able to report contacts
which are, or have recently been to COVID-19 hit countries, as well as track
whether individuals required to self-quarantine, are indeed doing so.
Countries such as China, South Korea and the United States are using this
concept of crowd sourcing from phone data to manage and track persons
affected by the pandemic and offer health care.
The post Data is one of our most powerful weapons in our fight against COVID-19 – VP Bawumia appeared first on The Chronicle Online.
Read Full Story
Facebook
Twitter
Pinterest
Instagram
Google+
YouTube
LinkedIn
RSS