The Ghana Health Service has traced a total of 648 people who had contact with the eight COVID-19-positive people within the Accra Girls’ SHS community, Deputy Minister of Education Dr Yaw Adutwum has disclosed.

They have all been isolated and being tested, he told journalists on Tuesday, 7 July 2020 during the Ministry of Information’s bi-weekly press briefing on the COVID-19 situation in the country.

Worried parents thronged the school on Monday to demand that their wards are released to go home after news broke that six of the students had tested positive.

A teacher and the spouse were also later confirmed to have tested positive.

“I can understand a parent getting a call from the school that your child is not well and it’s COVID-19. The frustration will be the highest level possible and I can understand why other parents will also run to the school and say: ‘Can I take my child away?’ but taking your child away at this point is not a very good option”, Dr Adutwum said.

“At this point, the 648 contacts have been identified” and “a number of them have been tested”, he said, adding that the Ghana Health Service is working with a team of 200 people and they “looking at everything that needs to be done, that has to be done and, as I speak with you, we’re on top of the medical side of things”.