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Dr Hafiz Bin Salih, the Upper West Regional Minister has allayed the fear of the people in the region as the six additional confirmed cases of COVID-19 did not come from the traced contacts of the first case recorded in the region.

“Let me reiterate that, so far, test results for samples from contacts of the first confirmed COVID-19 case in the region have proved negative. The six new cases have no link with the first confirmed case”, he said.

Dr. Bin Salih who made this known in a post on his Facebook wall on Tuesday morning, disclosed that, of the six new cases, five were imported cases from abroad while one returned from the Western Region.

“The region now has seven confirmed cases of COVID-19 and this is alarming”, stressing that, health officials in the region were, however, monitoring and supervising all the seven patients who were on isolation.

He explained that those who came from abroad, entered the country before the borders were closed and that their details at the airport in Accra were used by officials of Ghana Immigration Service (GIS) to trace them and their samples were taken by health officials.

“This week, some medical experts shall be in the region to help in case management of CSM cases”, Dr Bin Salih said while emphasizing that “We have enough medication to handle CSM cases in the region”.

“It should be noted that there is no vaccine for meningitis serotype X that has emerged in the meningitis belt in Africa”, stressing that early medical attention was required in their fight against CSM.

“We should therefore urge our people to seek early medical attention when they begin to have headache, feel feverish and/or stiffness in the neck”, the Regional Minister appealed.