directives was varied, with majority(98%) of bus operators adhering to the guidelines on physical distancing, although significant number of commuters were not adhering to the guidelines on face masks reported cases for details see timeline of the covid-19 pandemic in ghana. on 13 june, the minister of health tested positive for the disease and was admitted at the university of ghana medical centre in accra. a couple of days later the minister of information announced that the minister of health was now recuperating at home. the president also confirmed that the chief executive of the sekondi-takoradi metropolitan assembly, kobina kuretsi sam, had passed away due to covid-19. on 16 june, the ceo of the national health insurance authority (nhia), tested positive for the virus. veronica bucket, a bucket with a tap(spigot) attached mounted in many open spaces and at entrances for mandatory hand-washing.on 24 june, the education minister was detained at the ugmc over fears of the virus infection. he reported himself to the hospital when he felt unwell. member of parliament for okere was admitted at the same facility with the education minister. there were 9,860 new cases in june, bringing the total number of confirmed cases to 17,741. the death toll more than tripled to 112. the number of recovered patients increased by 10,427 to 13,268 since the start of the outbreak, leaving 4,361 active cases at the end of the month. government responses with effect from the beginning of june there was some relaxation of restrictions. religious services were allowed to commence effective friday, 5 june, with mandatory use of nose masks and with congregations not exceeding 100. private burials with a maximum attendance of 100 persons were allowed. similarly weddings and other social gatherings could take place with no more than 100 people attending. ghana's borders remained closed. the president announced that from the middle of june, final year students of junior high schools, senior high schools and universities could return to school. final year students in many of the 234 tertiary institutions started returning to their respective campuses on 15 june for a few weeks of classes and final exams. fumigation of all schools across the country also started with senior high schools expected to reopen on 22 june and junior high schools on 29 june. according to the new executive instrument, e.i. 164, signed by the president on 15 june 2020, people who refuse to wear face masks in public could face jail terms of between 4–10 years or a fine of between ghs12,000 (approx us$2,065) and ghs60,000 (approx us$10,320) or both would be made. the president approved the construction of additional intensive care unit (icu) bed facilities in the greater accra region to boost the country's covid-19 case management. the president also confirmed there was an ongoing construction of a new treatment centre in the ashanti region as part of efforts in the management of the disease cases in ghana. government calmed fears over the implementation of the new covid-19 discharge policy which was in line with the who revised recommendations that allowed for asymptomatic covid-19 patients to be discharged after 14 days without test. government assured guidelines to be given to the ghana police service on the mandatory wearing of face masks enforcement. minister for information said the communication from the police hierarchy would address the confusion that the enforcement plan might have caused. government asked institutions to strengthen safety measures to halt the spread of covid-19 disease among staffs. this was said by the information minister at a press conference in accra. ghana water company limited announced that the three months of "free water" announced by the ghana government in april would end on 30 june 2020. reported cases for details see timeline of the covid-19 pandemic in ghana. covid-19 antigen self test kit a former general secretary of the new patriotic party died after testing positive for covid-19 at the intensive care unit of korle-bu teaching hospital. campaign manager for new patriotic party and the deputy minister for trade and industry tested positive for covid-19 and were admitted at the korle-bu teaching hospital. it was later confirmed the former deputy minister of trade recovered from the virus. a consultant surgeon of the trust hospital died after testing positive for covid-19. he is the fourth medical doctor to die from the disease in ghana. the president of ghana, nana akufo-addo went to a 14-day self isolation after a person within his close circle tested positive for covid-19. six accra girls shs students tested positive for covid-19. the president completed his two weeks self-isolation of the coronavirus. the korle-bu teaching hospital announced the suspension of non-emergency surgical cases for two weeks to protect clients and staff from been infected with covid-19. it was also confirmed a teacher of accra girls school and the spouse tested positive for covid-19. senior minister of ghana tested positive for covid-19 and was confirmed by the information minister. the director general of ghs said measures were underway to track suspected cases of covid-19 disease in some senior high schools in ghana. the senior minister later tested negative for the virus after he went under self-isolation. scientists called for review of covid-19 safety protocols after there was an evidence that the virus could be spread in the air. the education minister was discharged after testing positive for the disease. 55 persons tested positive for covid-19. it was confirmed at the accra girls shs by the authorities. seven out the 55 persons who tested positive recovered and were discharged. a jhs in the oti region recorded a case of covid-19. according to the education directorate, 62 covid-19 cases were recorded in seven schools in greater-accra. 10 shs students tested positive for covid-19 in the ahafo region. six students recovered from the virus in ahafo region. 6 shs in western region recorded covid-19 cases. dr da costa aboagye, the director of health promotion of the ghana health service, on 19 july 2020 said in a report that four months after the country recorded its first coronavirus case, cases has exceeded 27,000. on july 21, the mp for assin central, kennedy agyapong revealed he tested positive for covid-19 after he celebrated his 60th birthday on 16 june 2020. according to the deputy minister of health, 178 cases of covid-19 were confirmed both in the jhs and shs and eight recoveries. he also claimed from may 2020, fly zipline ghana limited delivered 2,573 covid-19 samples to the nmimr and the kccr. umat in ghana became the latest school that recorded covid-19 case in the western region. the chief justice returned to office after he went for 14days isolation from the public. the deputy trade minister went into self-isolation after he was unwell in compliance with the covid-19 protocols. the number of confirmed cases doubled in july, to 35,501. the death toll increased by 70 to 182. there were 18,828 more recoveries, bringing the total number of recovered patients to 32,096. there were 3,223 active cases at the end of the month. government response as part of efforts to ensure management of covid-19 cases in accra, the metropolitan assembly announced that it planned to construct an isolation centre at kaneshie polyclinic. government has set aside 80million ghana cedis to pay front line health workers' incentive package as part of ghana's covid-19 pandemic preparedness. according to the information minister, government considered options in curbing the spread of covid-19 disease. government said it has embarked on the expansion of covid-19 treatment centres across ghana. this is to make available more logistics and beds for covid-19 management. government deployed over 200 personnel to monitor covid-19 cases in senior high schools. ghana's supreme court adjourned all cases which were scheduled in july. government considered inspection of offices to enforce covid-19 safety protocols. the speaker of parliament threatened to sanction parliamentary members who breached covid-19 protocols. a former president claimed government bungled up the national response to the covid-19 pandemic. the covid-19 national trust fund spent over 32million ghana cedis to aid in the fight against covid-19 in ghana. the coordinator of ghana's covid-19 testing program claimed ghana's testing capacity was back after laboratory equipment and supplies were delivered. ghs called on stakeholders to focus on active covid-19 cases and not cumulative cases. the minister for information discredited claimed the government's response strategy to covid-19 failed. the government distributed 50,000 pcr testing kits and other kits to covid-19 testing facilities across ghana. government spent us$35million on testing for covid-19 suspected cases. this amount was not part of the expenditure on the expansion of testing capacity according to the deputy health minister. the finance minister claimed in his report that the government spent about 54.3 million ghana cedis to provide cooked and uncooked food to the vulnerable during the three-week lockdown. he also claimed government would provide free electricity and water for the rest of 2020. disinfection and fumigation the ministry of local government and zoomlion began the first phase of the nationwide disinfection and fumigation on the ministry of local government and zoomlion began the second phase of nationwide disinfection and fumigation exercise. some markets in accra were used for the exercise. government disinfected markets, public places etc. in the upper west region as part of efforts in fighting the spread of the virus. the covid-19 national trust fund gave ghs6.8 million to the ghana covid-19 private sector fund to be given to the gidc. bans and restrictions the president lifted the ban on covid-19 related restrictions on transport operators by allowing them to operate to full capacity. he also lifted restrictions on tourist sites in the country. he further eased restrictions on religious worships in the country. the cap on the number of worshippers which was initially 100 people was removed. the president nana addo dankwa akufo-addo increased the duration from one hour to two hours, taking effect on saturday, 1 august 2020. he further claimed ghana's border closure still stands despite easing some covid-19 restrictions. face shield reported cases for details see timeline of the covid-19 pandemic in ghana on 2 august, according to the acting chief medical officer of barbados, dr. kenneth georgeit nine out of the 95 ghanaian nurses who traveled to barbados to work for two years have tested positive for covid-19. ghana recorded 798 new cases of covid-19 and nine persons died from the virus. on 5 august, ghana recorded eight new death cases hence a total of 199 death cases in the country. also, we recorded 574 new active cases pushing the total case count to 39,075. on 6 august, ghana recorded 567 new covid-19 cases. clinical recoveries rose to 36,384 and out of this number, eight are in a critical condition, four on ventilators, and 22 in severe condition. on 7 august, recorded 455 new positive cases therefore increasing the country's case count to 40,097. eight new deaths have also been recorded, pushing the number of deaths from the virus to 206. 436 new covid-19 cases recorded on 8 august 2020 had came from samples that were taken between 17 july and 4 august 2020. also, 7 persons were recorded to have died according to the ghana health service (ghs). on 9 august, ghana recorded 470 new cases pushing covid-19 cases to 41,003. also, 9 deaths were recorded hence a total of 215. on 13 august, 39,718 persons clinically recovered and were discharged. eight deaths were recorded on 15 august. this gives a total of 231 death cases. death cases increased to 248 with nine deaths and 340 new covid-19 cases recorded on 18 august. 101 new cases recorded on 19 august with eight death cases. this brings a total of active cases to 1,875. on 20 august, ghana's recoveries and discharges rose to 41,279 while the number of deaths increased from 256 to 261, with the latest death being recorded on 13 august. 180 new covid-19 cases were recorded on 24 august. there were 8,797 new cases in august, bringing the total number of confirmed cases to 44,298. the death toll rose by 94 to 276. the number of recovered patients grew by 10,867 to 42,963, leaving 1,059 active cases at the end of the month. economic impact a new covid-19 business tracker survey conducted by the ghana statistical service (gss), in collaboration with the undp, and