One employee with COVID-19 in Ghana infects 533 others at work

- The employee had been working in the factory with his colleagues who have also tested positive for the virus

- President Nana Akufo-Addo said the 533 from the factory were part of a backlog of 927 new cases confirmed

- The West African country has reported 4,700 cases of COVID-19 with 22 people having succumbed

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Out of 4,700 COVID-19 infections in Ghana, 533 of the cases originated from one person.

According to President Nana Akufo-Addo, the 533 who work in a fish processing factory were all infected by their colleague while working in the factory.

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Addressing Ghanaians on Sunday, May 10, the head of state said the West African country had recorded 921 new cases from were from backlog samples collected for testing dating back to April 26th.

"It is important to stress that five hundred and thirty-three (533) out of the nine hundred and twenty-one (921) new cases recorded between last Wednesday and Thursday are factory workers from a fish processing factory located in Tema.

"All five hundred and thirty-three (533) persons were infected by one (1) person," said Akufo-Addo in a statement.

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The mass infection at the facility brought the total number of confirmed cases in the West African nation to over 5,000 with 22 people having succumbed to coronavirus-related illnesses since the outbreak was reported in the country in March.

The head of state attributed the high number of confirmed cases to the increase in mass testing that has helped detect the patients in a timely manner.

He also lifted ban a three-week lockdown in its key cities, saying its coronavirus testing had improved and also to reduce the effect of the restrictions on the country's poor.

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So far, Ghana has carried out more than 160,000 tests and it has added seven more testing centres to speed up turnaround time.

The head of state extended the existing ban on public gatherings and said schools and borders across the country would remain closed.

In other news, the last survivor of the transatlantic slave trade has been finally identified in the person of Matilda McCrear, years after the belief that the last person was Redoshi Smith.

According to the BBC, a researcher at the Newcastle University called Hannah Durkin, previously indicated that the last of the survivors was Redoshi Smith who was captured in Africa in the 19th Century and brought to the US. But further works have revealed she was not the last to die.

Redoshi Smith died in 1937 and Hannah Durkin has now found out that a woman named Matilda McCrear who was also enslaved had lived until three years after 1937.

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President Akufo-Addo has extended the ban on public gatherings till the end of May | #Yencomgh

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Source: YEN.com.gh