The Ghana Medical Association, GMA, is worried about the significant rise in COVID-19-related deaths and critical illness among the population.

The Association says the trend does not look good, as health facilities at the moment seem overstretched.

The General Secretary of the association, Dr. Justice Yankson, said most of the country’s Intensive Care Units and High Dependency Units are full to capacity, making it difficult to accommodate more COVID-19 patients.

Speaking on Eyewitness News, he said the situation, among other things, is due to the highly contagious nature of the delta variant and the lack of public adherence to the preventive protocols.

“What is clear at this point is that most of our severe and critically-ill COVID-19 patients are beginning to see some struggle in terms of where to manage them. Most of our Intensive Care Units and High Dependency Units that managed a lot of these severe and critically-ill Covid-19 patients are full and overwhelmed and it is not a good thing for all of us,” he said.

Ghana is believed to be experiencing a third wave of COVDI-19 following an astronomical increase in active cases.

From barely 1,000 active cases about two months ago, there are over 6,922 active cases with 880 total deaths as of August 6, 2021.

The number of deaths indicate that in just a few days in August, at least 26 people have succumbed to the virus.

According to Dr. Yankson, the situation is extremely worrying.

He believes that the reason for the development includes late reporting to health facilities for treatment and challenges in accessing ICUs for COVID-19 treatment.

“What is happening is that there is also the rising number of deaths and we are beginning to see a lot more people dying all because of sometimes late reporting to the hospital or difficulty trying to get them to these High dependency units and the intensive care units so it is not a good thing.”