On 12 March 2020, Ghana’s Health Minister Kwaku Agyemang-Manu announced Ghana’s first two confirmed cases (in Accra). The two cases were people who returned to the country from Norway and Turkey which made them the first actual cases of COVID-19 in Ghana. By the end of the month there had been 152 confirmed cases, 5 deaths, and 22 recovered patients, leaving 125 active cases going into April.
The Government of Ghana based on the statistics, banned all public gatherings including conferences, workshops, funerals, festivals, political rallies, church activities and other related events to reduce the spread of the virus. Beaches were also closed. Basic schools, senior high schools and universities, both public and private, were also closed. Only Basic Education Certificate Examination and West African Senior School Certificate Examination candidates were permitted to remain in school under social distancing protocols. Traveling to Ghana from countries which had recorded over 200 positive COVID-19 cases was strongly discouraged with non-admittance of such travelers; this restriction did not however apply to Ghanaian citizens and people with resident permits. All of the country’s borders were later closed for two weeks from midnight of Sunday 22 March 2020. Passport services were also suspended.
As at May 2021, there had been 93,456 confirmed cases with 783 deaths. 847,871 vaccine doses had also been administered. A number of restrictions had also been lifted.