President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has said he fears Ghana, like other African countries, could suffer travel bans by Western nations who are putting in measures to stave off the Omicron variant of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Nigeria and South Africa are among some African countries that have suffered such travel restrictions.

Ghana has, so far, announced the detection of 34 cases of the variant in the country.

Speaking at a press conference at the Jubilee House on Tuesday, 7 December 2021, President Akufo-Addo said: “Yes, obviously, I share the fear that we may also be blacklisted even though it has not been done on any basis because if it was done on a fair basis, South Africa itself would not be the object of the ban”.

“People are acting in an arbitrary manner responding to political or racial or whatever considerations but there is nothing we can do about it except to protect ourselves and make sure we put ourselves in a good position.”

As of 1 December 2021, 27 new COVID-19 cases had been reported by the Ghana Health Service.

The country’s active caseload stands at 692.

Of that number, 23 are severe.

There are no critical cases.

So far, 1,228 people have died of the virus since mid-March 2020.

Ghana has recorded a total of 131,246 cases since March 2020.

Out of that number, 129,326 have recovered.

Also, a total of 5,724,634 doses of the COVID-19 vaccines have been administered.

Regional breakdown of the COVID-19 cases:

Greater Accra Region - 70,795

Ashanti Region - 20,721

Western Region - 7,549

Eastern Region - 6,605

Volta Region - 5,411

Central Region - 4,862

Bono East Region - 2,555

Bono Region - 2,123

Northern Region - 1,761

Upper East Region - 1,494

Ahafo Region - 1,060

Western North Region - 1,006

Oti Region - 848

Upper West Region - 743

North East Region - 283

Savannah Region - 262