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President of Ghana, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has made clarifications on why Ghana's COVID-19 recovery cases have shot up to over 10,000.

Ghana's case count now stands at 14,154 with 10,473 recoveries and 85 deaths.

Twenty-four (24) severe cases have been recorded with six (6) critically ill and 4 on ventilators.

Following the new recovery cases, there have been lots of controversies with some critics also believing in conspiracy theories.

President Akufo-Addo, in his 12th update on COVID-19 on Sunday, June 21, 2020, detailed the nation on why there is a sharp increase in the recovery cases.

According to him, "at the outset of the pandemic, the scientific community and the World Health Organisation (WHO), on 12th January, 2020, recommended two main criteria for declaring someone who has tested positive as having recovered from the disease. The first is that you no longer have symptoms, and the second is that you are no longer capable of infecting others. Initially, the scientific thinking was that, as long you continue to test positive, you are capable of infecting others. Hence, the raequirement for the two consecutive, negative tests before you are declared as having recovered. This was the science that informed the guidelines that Ghana has, so far, followed.

"However, there is now new evidence which states that, after ten (10) to fourteen (14) days, a person, with no symptoms, is unlikely to transmit the virus to others, even if the person continues to test positive. It is on this basis that WHO has updated its guidelines, as published per its Clinical Management of COVID-19 Interim Guidance, of 27th May, 2020, “as part of the clinical care pathway of a COVID-19 patient”. According to WHO, asymptomatic patients, i.e. those who have tested positive for the virus, but are not exhibiting any symptoms after fourteen (14) days, “are not likely to be infectious, and, therefore, are unlikely to be able to transmit the virus to another person”.

The President noted that, after analyzing the WHO new directive and situating it in the Ghanaian context, ''this new patient discharge/recovery policy has now been adopted by Ghana, as have some countries in the European Union, Singapore, India, Malaysia, Hong Kong, and in Dubai''.

"As at Saturday, 20th June, the total number of positives, cumulatively, stands at fourteen thousand, and one hundred and fifty-four (14,154), out of the two hundred and seventy thousand, three hundred (270,300) tests conducted. Under the revised policy, five thousand, nine hundred and twenty-five (5,925) persons have recovered and been discharged. This brings the total number of recoveries to ten thousand, four hundred and seventy-three (10,473). The number of active cases is, thus, three thousand, five hundred and ninety-six (3,596). In our hospitals and isolation centres, we currently have twenty-four (24) persons severely ill, six (6) persons critically ill, with four (4) persons on ventilators. Eighty-five (85) persons have, regrettably, died," he added.