The President of the Republic, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, says the decision to lift the partial lockdown of Accra, Kumasi, Tema and Kasoa, was taken after a careful consideration of a number of factors.
According to President Akufo-Addo, the country’s current capacity “to trace victims of this disease, being able to test, being able to isolate and quarantine those people so that we take them out of the population, and, of course, the treatment”, are some of the factors that led to the decision to lift the partial lockdown.
Again, the President added that “we are also looking at the demography of the disease itself, in terms of the sick, in terms of death. What we will like to do, as decision makers, is to balance all these factors and to come to a conclusion and a set of solutions that will benefit our people and of course, protect the economy of our country. All of these have been the basket of issues that have led us to take this decision.”
President Akufo-Addo made this known on Monday, 20th April, 2020, when he invited the Executive Committee of the Ghana Medical Association to a meeting at Jubilee House to explain the rationale behind the lifting of the lockdown, and deliberate on how Government and the Association can continue to work together post the lifting of the lockdown.
Whilst being hopeful of gaining the understanding and co-operation of Association, he expressed his satisfaction about the mode of testing and the results that have emanated from the tests.
“The common consensus has recognized that we have undertaken the most preemptive testing on the continent in relative terms. That has given us a very large pool of information as to how the disease is unfolding in our country. I think our capacity to be able to continue to do that is very critical for our ability to deal with this virus,” President Akufo-Addo added.
He noted that had Government not taken the decision to aggressively to go out and test infected people and their contacts, “we would not have the figures that we are getting today and yet, we would have had those very same people within the population.”
The testing of nearly 70,000 contacts whose results have are known, the President stressed, “continue to give us the demography, the infection rate, the death rate, and the numbers of people who are affected and are moderately ill. All of those things are remaining quite consistent in the data that we have received.”
It is that robust consistency in the data, he explained, “that we have that is inspiring our decision. I called you here this morning for you to hear us and for you to also see the measures that we have.”
As President of the Republic, he indicated that “I cannot ignore the impact that this lock down is having on several constituencies of our nation, especially the informal workers, a very important part of our economy, who need to have a day out in the market or otherwise in order to provide for their families, who were having a lot of difficulty.”
To members of the Association, the President expressed the appreciation of the nation for the important role all health workers are playing towards helping Government to combat the disease.
“You are the very centre of this battle – doctors and the Association of Doctors in our country. You are very, very central to whatever steps we will take to take this country forward. I thought it was important to meet immediately after the decision that we took last night to ease the restrictions of movements in our two greatest cities-Accra and Kumasi, and to get a bit of a flavour of how we are looking to go about this,” he added.
On behalf of the Ghana Medical Association, Dr. Frank Ankobea, the President of the Association thanked the President for the invitation, adding that “all we need to do is to pledge our support to Government that we will continue with you, and we will continue to fight until this virus is eliminated from Ghana.”
Source: Peacefmonline.com
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It's the right decision, sir. The lockdown was not even necessary in the first place
Mr. president would you continue to broadcast to the nation in the evenings or not. What would happen if the figures take upward trend since the lockdown were restricted to few cities. Is the lift on lockdown based on scientific data or socio-economic activities. Not sure if the council of state know what they are there for. Please note that if the figure increases, it means you have failed. If by September 2020 the curve is not flattened or coming down, how are you going to convince electorate to vote for you based on your performance. If you sincerely believe in your performance, why are you in a hurry
You are a big fat li*r. We all know politics (voter registration) and poor state of the economy led you to lift the restrictions. Posterity will judge you, dw*rf goat
THE HARM OF THE GENERAL LOCKDOWN IN KUMASI AND ACCRA WEIGHS FAR MORE THAN EASING IT. WE GET VERY DISTURBING CROWDS IN GIVING OUT FOOD TO THE NEEDY. THIS DEFEAT THE PURPOSE OF KEEPING AWAY FROM OTHERS TO AVOID THE SPREAD OF INFECTION. BESIDES, MANY STILL DO NOT GET FOOD TO EAT. THREE OR TWO GHANAIANS HAVE DIED FROM ENFORCING THE LOCKDOWN. SOME INTENTIONALLY MAKE NONSENSEEE OF THE LOCKDOWN. THEY TELL LIES TO THE POLICE AND THE SOLDIERS AND GIVE ALL KINDS OF FRIVOLOUS EXCUSES. THEY MAKE THE WORK OF THE ENFORCING THE LOCKDOWN VERY DIFFICULT. LIFE GENERALLY HAS BECOME DIFFICULT FOR MANY. IT MUST BE ACKNOWLEDGED THAT THE LIFTING OF LOCKDOWN DOES NOT TAKE AWAY THE OTHER RESTRICTIONS AND PRECAUTIONS. ALL STILL NEED TO OBSERVE THE BAN ON PUBLIC GATHERINGS, SOCIAL DISTANCING, STAY HOME, KEEPING AWAY FROM OTHERS, WEARING FACEMASKS AND GLOVES, HANDS WASHING AND SENSITIZING AND MANY OTHER PRACTICES. MANY THINGS WERE CONSIDERED AND COMPARED TO REACH THE DECISION TO LIFT THE LOCKDOWN. EVERY CHOICE IN LIFE HAS ITS GOOD SIDE AND BAD SIDE. ONE HAS TO EVALUATE ALL THE ISSUES INVOLVED TO DECIDE ON THE LESSER EVIL. THE DECISION OF THE GOVERNMENT IS ADVISED BY THE PROFESSIONALS AND THE EXPERTS IN THE COUNTRY AND ABROAD WHO ARE WELL-INFORMED IN THE MATTERS RELATING TO THIS GLOBAL CRISIS. WE MUST DO OUR BEST AS GHANAIANS TO COOPERATE WITH OUR LEADERS TO BECOME SUCCESSFUL IN THIS FIGHT AGAINST COVID-19. THE GROWING NUMBER OF CASES IN GHANA RESULTS FROM THE OF MASSIVE TESTING, WHICH IS SO FAR THE LARGEST IN AFRICA. THE NINE DEATH IS AN EVIDENCE TO THE EFFORT BY THE GOVERNMENT AND MANY IN THE COUNTRY. WE MUST COUNT OURSELVES BLESSED AND THANK GOD. POP
More positive test and you lift ban on lockdown. Let us analyze the wisdom or logic in president's decision. Let/'s assume the population for lockdown cities is about 7 million. About 80,000 of the population have been tested within three weeks and we are waiting for the result of 18,000. . Assume all the MP's have tested positive. Would there be a lockdown or not. What would happen if by June the task force has recorded 2000 plus positives. I believe personal interest is being prioritized over safety of majority of ghanaians. I do not loose whether the figure goes up or down, however the president stand to loose heavily and become unpopular if the figures climb.
With all due respect, Mr. Prez, I think the decision was wrong. We all support you and everything you have done since this crises begun but this particular decision is a bit too hasty. Are you saying that the risk posed by Covid 19 has reduced? No! At least the numbers are on the increase. You should have waited till the end of the month at the very least. You are probably well-intended so I hope this doesn't backfire.