President of the Institute for Security, Disaster and Emergency Studies, Dr Ishmael Norman says Ghana might experience another lockdown situation if Covid-19 cases in the country keeps increasing.
Following the President’s announcement yesterday April 19 2020 on the Covid-19 positive cases recorded which he stated is now 1,042, Dr Norman explained that if the virus keeps evolving Ghana may not be able to manage the new cases.
In a radio interview, today Mr Norman said there is a possibility of the country experiencing another lockdown situation
''My issue is that we went on lockdown when the case count was less than 50 and now the case count of more than a thousand and there has been the easing of the restrictions. My worry is that if the virus keeps evolving, then at some point we may get to a situation where we may not be able to manage the cases. If we get to that point then we may have to come to a lockdown situation’’.
He further described President Akufo-Addo’s decision to leave out universities and churches in the lifting of the lockdown as 'senseless' arguing that tertiary schools and religious organizations could also practice social distancing just as markets and shops which are now allowed to operate.
“Why do you leave the universities and other institutions out and say the others can go to work? Hotels and universities can also observe social distancing.’’
He stressed that : “It doesn’t make sense, with all due respect to the president, that you have released major parts of this country and you’re discriminating in the easing of universities, churches and schools…I think the president is in wishful thinking in the ability of Ghanaians to comply with the protocols.''
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Meanwhile, the President yesterday announced the lifting the 3-week lockdown on Greater Accra and Kumasi, effective today Monday, April 20 2020.
In addition to the lift of restriction on movement in Accra and Kumasi, the President, however, stated all other social distancing measures are still in place indicating that churches, schools both Public and Private, will still remain shut.
The President explained that the decision to enforce the 3-week lockdown was taken to give government the opportunity to try to contain the spread of the virus, scale-up effectively the tracing of persons who had come into contact with infected persons, test them for the virus and quarantine those who tested positive and isolate them for treatment.
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