The French Information Agency (AFP) has explained as phony President Akufo-Addo’s assert that Ghana “has administered additional exams per million folks than any other country in Africa.”
According to AFP, it has observed from offered statistics that Ghana is driving South Africa and at minimum two other African nations.
The President, Nana Akufo-Addo in his ninth address to the nation on Could 10, on measures his govt was taking to fight the coronavirus “…in simple fact, the Entire world Overall health Organisation (WHO) has arrived at out to us to share our sample pooling knowledge with other African countries, so they can adopt this tactic and also ramp up their screening abilities.”
Read the report by AFP below:
Ghanaian President Nana Akufo-Addo claimed in a speech that his place experienced administered extra COVID-19 assessments for every million folks than any other region in Africa. However, the claim is fake AFP has found from offered data that Ghana will come driving South Africa and at least two other African countries.
The president manufactured the statement on Could 10 in a televised broadcast about the novel coronavirus pandemic, which was also extensively seen on Facebook.
“Our nation has administered a lot more tests for each million people today than any other country in Africa, and, in fact, the Environment Well being Organization… has arrived at out to us to share our sample-pooling working experience with other African nations around the world, so they can undertake this method and also ramp up their screening abilities,” he reported in his ninth address on the crisis.
He also urged Ghanaians to disregard politicians who allege the country’s COVID-19 figures depict a failure on the portion of the authorities because “they need to have to make these feedback for their political survival”.
Akufo-Addo is left with hardly a calendar year to entire his 1st time period in business, and is facing a rough struggle for reelection in December versus previous leader John Mahama.
At minimum 5,127 people have analyzed favourable for COVID-19 in Ghana as of Might 12, 2020, making it the worst-hit state in the West African region. The authorities has extended the closure of its borders until Could 31, 2020, to consider to stem the virus distribute.
Akufo-Addo’s claim about leading Africa in tests per million inhabitants was showcased in numerous nearby and international news experiences, such as by Africa News and The New York Periods.
South Africa leads testing
But the assert is false. To confirm this, AFP as opposed available data from Ghana to that of five other international locations: Nigeria, the most populous African country South Africa, which has administered the optimum selection of checks over-all in accordance to the Africa Centres for Sickness Command and Avoidance and Mauritius, Botswana and Djibouti, due to the fact whilst much lesser in populace, these international locations have performed somewhat significant numbers of tests.
Of these five, AFP observed that Nigeria and Botswana rank lessen than Ghana in COVID-19 assessments for every million persons, even though South Africa, Djibouti and Mauritius rank increased.
This figure is calculated by dividing the country’s range of COVID-19 assessments by its total inhabitants, and then multiplying the outcome by just one million.
In accordance to official figures from each country as of Could 10, 2020, Nigeria experienced conducted 27,078 COVID-19 exams South Africa, 341,336exams Ghana, 160,501 tests (see 4’25” in the president’s speech) Botswana, 9,540 tests Mauritius, 73,572 tests and Djibouti, 15,304exams.
This, in comparison with the 5 countries’ populace figures, gives us the adhering to rankings:
When President Akufo-Addo created the claim, Ghana experienced executed 5,300 tests for each and every million inhabitants — higher than Nigeria’s 135 tests for each million and Botswana’s 4,079 tests for every million but underneath South Africa (5,808 per million), Djibouti (15,713 per million), and Mauritius (57,931 per million).
AFP has contacted the Ghanaian presidency for remark but has not however received a response.
