11-Day-Old Baby Contracts COVID-19 At Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital

In the Ashanti regional capital of the Kumasi region, Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH) records a rise in cases of Covid-19 among children.

Nine children have been screened for the novel, coronavirus in this facility over the past 10 days and tested positive.

The youngest of them is an 11-day-old boy, but the oldest of them is 14.

Professor Sampson Antwi, head of the Child Health Directorate, said the situation would have been
disruptive as management struggles to access space for children diagnosed with Covid-19 and other cases.

“We are having a huge surge in Covid positive cases and the disease initially, children were said to be spared. We had 14 the whole of last year but this year, just in the space of 10-days, we got 9 positive cases,” he told JoyNews.

The hospital is the only pediatric referral center in the country’s northern sector.

Management says that the hospital lacks space and has a desperate need for accommodation.

“The Covid strain that we are having now is really also affecting children seriously. If less than 2-weeks we are getting 9 cases, we don’t go where we are going to go and we are already full,” says Prof Antwi.

Prof. Antwi said the facility can no longer admit cases.

“We are not in the position even to bring new cases. I don’t mean Covid. Anybody who is sick when you come here, we will just screen you infront [of the hospital] probably in an ambulance that you came in with.

“If there’s something that we need to do for you, we can do to stabilize you and send you back because our wards are full”.

According to him, the Regional Health Directorate is currently considering the creation of a treatment center for Covid-19 children

“We are exploring the possibility of getting a treatment centre for children [with Covid]. We are in talks with the Medical Director. They have actually had discussions with the Regional Health Directorate to see if they can create space for children who are stable; Covid positives who are stable so that we can move some of them there.”

Prof. Baafuor Kofi Opoku, the hospital’s medical director, showed that out of 504 samples obtained, 251 reported positive findings, representing 49.8 percent.

The figures have been reported from last year until January 26, 2021.

In the meantime, the board of the Covid-19 management dismissed claims of incompetence and failure.

Certain caregivers in the Child Health Directorate have charged management with endangering their lives because Covid-19 suspicious cases are treated along with other patients.

However, the management dismissed the allegations during
the press briefing to respond to allegations.

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