President Akufo-Addo
President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has cautioned Ghanaians against flouting of the Covid-19 protocols. This comes at the back of the current increase in the number of active cases in the country.
Addressing the country in his 19th Updates to Ghana’s Enhanced Response to the coronavirus pandemic, the President warned: “Now more than ever, we have to adhere to mask wearing, hand washing, the use of sanitizers, and social distancing protocols that have become a part of our daily routines, and which has ensured that we do not impose, all over again, the restrictions we are seeing in other parts of the world.”
Rising cases
Ghana’s active Covid-19 cases have risen within three weeks from 398 cases to 1,139 active cases, as of Friday, November 6. Some 320 people, though a great majority of them with underlying illnesses, such as hypertension, diabetes, chronic liver disease and asthma, have died.
The number of daily infections has risen from an average of 25 new cases per day to an average of over 130.
According to the President, an analysis of the active case data suggests that the Greater Accra Region accounts for some 75 per cent, with all districts, but for two, recording new cases. Ashanti, Bono, Eastern and Western is responsible for 16 per cent of active cases. The remaining 11 regions make up four percent of the cases, with arrivals at Kotoka International Airport responsible for the other five per cent.
Concern
These figures, according to President Akufo-Addo, give cause for concern, in view of what is happening in Europe and America, following the outbreak of a second wave of infections that is engulfing so many other countries.
The President said scientists at the West African Centre for Cell Biology of Infectious Pathogens, University of Ghana, collaborating with the Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research, who are studying the genetic make-up of the virus in Ghana, have established that the virus has not changed.
“Our observation, however, is that a reduction in compliance with the preventive protocols account for the increase in infections,” he said.
The President, for instance, expressed worry that the previous high compliance rate with mask wearing of persons surveyed by the Ghana Health Service in some selected areas of Accra, according to a new survey, has fallen alarmingly, from 44.3 per cent to five per cent.
To this end, he has warned that “severe sanctions exist in our laws for persons who want to continue to disregard these protocols, and for those who want to endanger the rest of the population through their actions and negligence.”
Mitigating measures
Meanwhile, the President, in an attempt to arrest this new threat of rising infections, has reaffirmed the government’s commitment to enhancing the measures of tracing, testing and treatment.
In addition, the government is embarking on strategic, controlled easing of public gatherings, enhanced public education and information, and continue to provide relief and support to individuals, families and businesses.
The President has also instructed the release of additional logistics, including vehicles, to the Ghana Health Service to help beef up contact tracing, and the supervision and monitoring of asymptomatic cases being managed from home. The use of technology is also employed to augment contact tracing efforts, as well as the supervision and monitoring of home care cases.
The government, in the coming weeks, will also open the 100-bed Ghana Infectious Diseases Centre, located at the Ga East Hospital, under the management of the Ghana Health Service.
“The provision of adequate medicines, equipment, and personal protective equipment to enable health workers attend to home-based patients has also been guaranteed,” the President has assured.
According to President Akufo-Addo, airport authorities will continue to demand that passengers arriving in the country be in possession of a 72-hour old negative PCR test, and we will continue to sanction airlines that flout this directive.
“The health authorities will intensify the follow up process of arriving passengers, even when they have tested negative to help ensure we have ruled out any possible infection that may have occurred during the period of embarkation and disembarkation,” he added.
Incentives for health workers
President Akufo-Addo also announced that the incentive package for health workers has been extended to the end of the year. This means that all health workers will pay no income taxes for the months of October, November and December. Again, all frontline health workers, as defined by the Ministry of Health, will continue to receive the additional allowance of 50 per cent of their basic salary per month, for the months of October, November and December.
With a month to the conduct of the December 7 presidential and parliamentary elections, the President has encouraged “political party leaders and supporters, at the very least, to wear the mask at all times at these gatherings.”
“This task is not only for the leaders of our political parties. All of us, in the Executive, Legislature, Judiciary, public sector, security agencies, private sector, civil society, professional and trade associations, religious bodies, traditional authorities and ordinary citizens, must do what we can, in this period, to help minimise disease transmission,” he said.
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