**Background**: The COVID-19 pandemic presents an urgent public health threat to all nations for which prompt identification of infected person remains an important public health approach to its management and control of the spread of infections. Ghana recorded its first COVID cases on the 12th of March 2020. The Tamale teaching hospital recorded its cases on the 27th of March 2020. This is the data from a teaching hospital in Ghana collected by the authors/ contributors. Almost all the contributors were leaders of the case management team of COVID-19.
**Time of data collection**: The data from a teaching hospital setting in Ghana, West Africa. Data for all tested patients from March through August 2020 are included in this data set.
**Study procedures**: All patients presenting for testing had a case report form (supplement file 1) completed and the sample taken. Nasopharyngeal and/ or oropharyngeal swabs were placed in cryotubes containing viral transport media (VTM) and stored immediately on ice or fridge (4 - 8 oC) and transported within 24 hours to the testing sites. There were multiple instances where sputum samples were collected in sputum containers due to lack of swabs and or VTM for the months of June through to August and nasopharyngeal swabs were reserved for children or patients who could not provide sputum samples. About 70% of all tests analysed in this study were carried out on sputum samples.
Typically, samples were triple packaged and kept in sample carriers with cold packs. Samples were transported to the testing centre in a dedicated ambulance or hospital vehicle. Real-time reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (rT-PCR) was carried out targeting ribonucleic acid (RNA)-dependent RNA polymerase to detect the presence of SARS-CoV-2 and pan coronavirus (pan-CoV). Real-time rT-PCR was carried out following standard procedures. A test was declared positive if PCR detected both SARS-CoV-2 and PanCoV. The test was repeated if only SARS-CoV-2 was detected while pan-CoV was not detected.
**Variables:** Independent demographic variables such as sex (male or female) and age (grouped ≤9, 10-19, 20-29, 30-39, 40-49, 50-59 and 60 and above) were also reported. We analysed data on clinical status at time of sample taking such as symptomatic or asymptomatic, temperature measured using non-contact thermometers, and several other set of symptoms (data collection form attached as supplement 1). The following symptoms were analysed as categorical variables: history of fever, general weakness, cough, sore throat, runny nose, shortness of breath, diarrhoea, headache, pain (muscular, chest, abdominal and joint pains), anosmia (loss of sensation of smell) and ageusia (loss of sensation of taste).
