President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo on Sunday, April 19, 2020, announced the suspension of the partial lockdown imposed on the Greater Accra and Greater Kumasi Metropolitan Areas effective today, Monday.
The decision comes on the back of an upsurge in the number of Coronavirus cases recorded within the last few weeks.
Ghana’s total confirmed COVID-19 cases stand at 1,042 with 9 deaths.
The announcement has been met with mixed reactions. Whereas some people argue that the decision was premature, others think otherwise.
Below are the reasons President Akufo-Addo gave for lifting the lockdown:
1. Ability to undertake aggressive contact tracing of infected persons
2. Enhancement of our capacity to test
3. Expansion in the numbers of our treatment and isolation centres
4. Our better understanding of the dynamism of the virus
5. Ramping up of our domestic capacity to produce our own personal protective equipment sanitisers and medicines
6. Modest successes chalked at containing the spread of the virus in Accra and Kumasi
7. The severe impact on the poor and vulnerable
WHO conditions for lifting restrictions
Meanwhile, the World Health Organization (WHO) last week set six conditions for lifting COVID-19-related restrictions.
The conditions are:
1. Disease transmission is under control
2. Health systems are able to “detect, test, isolate and treat every case and trace every contact”
3. Hot spot risks are minimized in vulnerable places, such as nursing homes
4. Schools, workplaces and other essential places have established preventive measures
5. The risk of importing new cases “can be managed”
6. Communities are fully educated, engaged and empowered to live under a new norma
