The Minister-designate for Information, Mr Kojo Oppong-Nkrumah, is quoted by various media outlets as saying that the Akufo-Addo government is considering all options, including a possible lockdown, if the current upsurge of the Covid-19 pandemic in the country is not reversed.
Prior to this announcement by the Minister-designate, the Ghana Medical Association (GMA) had also advised the government to consider the possibility of locking down the country to slow down the spread of the virus. Obviously, both Kojo Oppong-Nkrumah and GMA have been frightened by the current 3,613 active cases nationwide, as against 300 cases recorded in December last year.
Available records indicate that Ghana is now recording over 600 new cases daily, whilst our death tolls stand at 372, up from 335 recorded on December 31, 2020. Looking at the way the second wave of the disease is spreading, and way it is killing people, especially in the advanced countries, which have got all the technologies and financial wherewithal to fight it, it is only an irresponsible government that will sit down in Africa and fold her arms as if nothing is happening.
This is the reason why The Chronicle is not surprised at the hard stance being adopted by the GMA and civil society organisations to force the government to implement austerity measures to slow down the spread of the virus. But, whilst agreeing with the Information Minister-designate and the GMA about the implementation of these austerity measures to control the upward surge of the virus, we disagree, in particular, with the threat to lockdown the country for the second time.
The Chronicle admits that countries such as Italy, France, Germany, Britain, among others, are currently on lockdown, but the wholesale importation of such ideas may not be beneficial to us in Ghana. The aforementioned countries are well resourced and can afford to keep their citizens at home for some time without feeling the financial heat, but we, in Ghana, cannot simply do that.
Indeed, we all saw the struggle majority of Ghanaians went through when the lockdown policy was implemented in March last year. Because most Ghanaians live on the hand-to-mouth kind of business, feeding themselves and their families was a herculean task for them. In fact, if the lockdown had continued beyond the time frame set by the President, people would have defied the order, because there was nothing for them to eat.
In our view, instead of locking down the country again, President Akufo-Addo and his team of advisors must look at other options that will also help in slowing down the spread of the virus. Among these options is the immediate ban of all social gatherings, including funerals, church services and attendance of football matches.
The various metropolitan, municipal and district assemblies must also adopt a strategy to limit the number of people who troop to our various markets on a daily basis to trade. For instance, those selling farm produce can be asked to sell on a particular day or days in the week, after which they will take the rest and allow their counterparts selling, say provisional items and clothing, to also come to the market and trade.
In so doing, the assembly would have limited congestion in our markets, since there will be no incentive for the person who wants to buy food items to move to the market on the day reserved for only provisional and clothing sellers, and vice versa.
We are not rooting our arguments on any verifiable statistics, but we strongly believe that the spread of the disease is a result of funerals and other social gatherings Ghanaians are still allowed to attend. Despite the repeated announcements about the dangers of the disease we are all talking about, it is still common to see people surrounding tables at funerals drinking and chatting without wearing any face masks.
This is the reality, and we need to confront it head on, instead of forcing people to stay at home when they do not know where their next meal will be coming from. In addition to the above suggestions, the wearing of face masks, especially in public, must vigorously be enforced by the law enforcement agencies.
Statistics from the Ghana Health Service indicate that children have not fallen victim to the deadly disease. If this is the true reflection of what is happening on the ground, then there is no need to close down the schools again.
What must be done now is for the teachers to ensure that children under their care observe all the Covid-19 protocols. Closing down the schools will seriously affect the academic calendar, since the children have already stayed at home for close to a year.
Covid-19 is a deadly disease, but we should not panic. It is our conviction that if some of the ideas we have put forward are implemented, it will gradually help to deal with the situation.
The post Editorial: Ban funerals & social gatherings instead of another lockdown appeared first on The Chronicle Online.
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