Leveana Gyimah blogs for King’s College London Global Health Institute:
On the 13th of March, 2020 Ghanaians received news of the first confirmed case of COVID-19. I knew my life was going to change over the next few weeks. There was intense health education locally on the pandemic and measures to curb its spread across the airwaves and social media platforms. On midnight of 22nd March 2020, the borders of Ghana were closed, and individuals who arrived after the restriction were subjected to mandatory quarantine and testing. All health institutions had a mandate to prepare to screen, identify and isolate suspected cases using the national case definition based on symptoms such as fever > 38.⁰C, respiratory symptoms and a travel history, within the last two weeks, from a country that had recorded a positive case of COVID-19. Local responses were to be activated and protocols were put in place for notifying District Health Directorates through the District Disease Control Officer.