The Health Minister-designate, Kwaku Agyeman-Manu, says despite public perception that the country’s Covid-19 case count is being ‘massaged’, he believes the figures being churn out by the Ghana Health Service (GHS).

He told Parliament’s Appointments Committee Wednesday, that with his status as the acting Health Minister, he is confident all numbers released by the institution are accurate.

“If I don’t believe in the numbers who else will? These numbers are coming from our outfit, an agent that is dedicated to its work. How then can I sit here as a Minister and say I don’t believe in the numbers? Please, I do and I do and I do,” Mr. Agyeman-Manu said in response to a question posed by the MP for Abetifi, Bryan Acheampong.

The question came on the back of an update by the GHS that eight more people have died from the coronavirus disease in less than 24 hours.

On its website, GHS also indicated that the death toll has risen from 464 to 472 as of February 9.

Out of this number, over 137 occurred only in 2021 within 2 months as compared to a death toll of 335 within 10 months in 2020.

Also, Ghana is said to have recorded 6,707 active cases and 795 new cases within February 8 and February 9.

These updates generated a debate on social media, with some alleging that government may be massaging the figures especially with regards to deaths recorded so as to avoid fear and panic.

But touching on new measures that will be put in place to ensure that government is able to control the current surge, the former Health Minister who has been re-nominated by President Akufo-Addo said, the strategies used over the last months have worked for the country, hence will be maintained.

“We have battled Covid for nearly 11 months. The strategies we have used have worked for us in Ghana. If you look at our deaths or even our infection rate at the point where we slowed down transmission to this level, we must be thankful and grateful to God and our President for leading the battle.

“We are not going to change soo much. The only new things we are going to do are the new things that have come up on the globe like the vaccination.

“But apart from that, we are beefing up our risk communication again and we have started to ensure that Ghanaians adhere strictly to the Covid protocols. That is the only solution,” the Dormaa Central MP, stressed.