CORONAVIRUS: Despite increase, Ghana relaxes lockdown

Ghanaian president, Nana Akufo-Addo, has announced Sunday night, the lifting of the three weeks lockdown imposed on parts of the country on March 30, to curb the spread of Covid-19 in a nationwide broadcast.

According to Akufo-Addo, the new directive will take effect on April 20.

“Fellow Ghanaians, in view of our ability to undertake aggressive contact of infected persons, the enhancement of our capacity to test, the expansion in the numbers of our treatment and isolation centres, our better understanding of the dynamism of the virus, the ramping up our domestic capacity to produce our own personal protective equipment, sanitisers and medicines, the modest successes chalked at containing the spread of the virus in Accra and Kumasi, and the severe impact of the poor and vulnerable, I have taken the decision to life the three-week-old restriction on movements in the Greater Accra Metropolitan Area and Kasoa, and the Greater Kumasi Metropolitan Area and the contiguous districts, with effect from 1am on Monday, 20th April,” he said.

While the lockdown has been restricted, the president said other measures such as social distancing and the ban on mass gatherings remain in place.

“I must make it clear, at the outset, that that lifting these restrictions does not mean we are letting our guard down. All other measures are still firmly in place. For the avoidance of doubt, the earlier measures announced in Wednesday, 15th March, which have been extended, are still very much in force, and have not been relaxed.

Read also: COVID-19: Lockdown order sparks protests in US, as UN calls for $350m global emergency fund

“I am demanding even greater adherence to these measures. In here, I am referring to the suspension of all public gatherings, including conferences, workshops, funerals, parties, nightclubs, drinking spots, beaches, festivals, political rallies, religious festivities and sporting events.”

According to Worldometer, a website that shares live updates about coronavirus, Ghana has 1,042 confirmed cases of coronavirus, with nine dead and 99 recoveries.

Meanwhile, the president stated that a total of 86,000 contacts have been traced.

As part of the effort of the government in containing the spread 9f the pandemic virus, the president added that, “We have also scaled up the domestic production of personal protective equipment, and our healthcare facilities, so far, have taken delivery of 14,550 scrubs, 11,900 gowns, 19,980 head covers, 263,281 nose masks, 13,002 N-95 nose masks. 41,117 varying sizes of sanitisers have also been produced locally and delivered to our health facilities”.

By Oluwakemi Adelagun…

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