An economist with the University of Ghana Business School, Dr. Patrick Asuming has lauded the decision of President Nana Akufo-Addo to lift the partial lockdown on parts of the country.
According to him, the manner in which the lockdown was implemented was disadvantageous to the majority of workers in the informal economy.
Speaking on the Citi Breakfast Show, Dr Assuming said: “It is really an economic choice that they (government) have made and the choice is how long can we continue to sacrifice. Three weeks of lockdown is a hefty sacrifice and for people who live from hand to mouth who cannot survive.”
He suggested that before the lockdown, the government should “have done more aggressive and accurate in targeting of people who needed the support so that they could live in the lockdown.”
Despite lifting the restriction in movements, the President advised citizens to continually adhere to safety protocols with the closure of borders and ban on social gathering being effective.
The President on Sunday lifted the lockdown imposed on Kasoa, Greater Kumasi and Greater Accra metropolitan areas whilst maintaining restrictions on public gatherings, a measure adopted to contain the spread of the novel coronavirus.
The decision has since been greeted with mixed reactions.
Lifting of lockdown a bad idea – Member of NDC’s COVID-19 Team
A public Health Specialist and a member of the National Democratic Congress’ (NDC) COVID-19 Technical Team, Dr Prosper Akambong argued that President Nana Akufo-Addo’s decision to lift the partial lockdown was hasty.
In an interview on the Citi Breakfast Show, Dr Prosper Akambong said the President should have rather extended the lockdown to other areas that have confirmed cases of COVID-19.
“Lifting the lockdown is not a good idea because the government is only doing contact tracing and the cases are rising at the time that they are lifting this sanction. And these contact traces are only primary contacts and because of the delay in some of the results that are coming from the primary contacts, the primary contacts have also contacted primary contacts, tertiary contacts and quaternary contacts. So you just can’t test a few people and think that because your curve appears to be flattening you should lift the restrictions, I don’t think so,” he said.
Dr Akambong also indicated that the best option was to embark on a mass testing exercise before lifting the lockdown.