The Minority Caucus on the Health Committee is asking government to extend the partial lockdown currently in force to three other regions in the country where cases of COVID-19 have been recorded.
President Nana Akufo-Addo imposed a partial lockdown on Accra, Tema, and Kumasi effective Monday, March 30, 2020, when he addressed the nation on Friday, March 27, 2020, in a bid to contain the spread of the outbreak in the country.
The case count currently in the country is 204 recorded in the Greater Accra, Ashanti, Northern, Upper West, and Eastern Regions.
The Upper West, Northern and Eastern Regions are not affected by the lockdown measures.
Addressing the media, Ranking Member on the Health Committee, Kwabena Mintah Akandoh indicated that extending the lockdown to the other COVID-19 affected regions will help contain the spread of the disease.
“In the essence of a lockdown, you lockdown, you restrict movement because once the movement is not restricted, the spread moves faster. So, in order to contain them, I think that restricting the movement of persons in these five regions will not be bad. But if you restrict the movements in these regions and you sit idle, only restricting the movements alone will not stop the spread. You must have steps in place to fight them while you contain them. If you embark on lockdown and don’t do anything after the lockdown people will still be carrying the virus,” he opined.
He also appealed to government to urgently respond to the call of doctors at Korle Bu Teaching Hospital who have threatened to withdraw services for lack of PPEs.
“We will never back medical doctors or health professionals to embark on a strike at this crucial moment. We are all at risk so we can only appeal to them to be at work. But you see, they must be alive and they must survive before they can protect us. So while we are appealing to them to be at work, the government must also expedite actions on what they need. It looks like they (government) have done well with the talking but at this time it’s actions we need and not talking. So they must walk the talk.”
Ghana’s confirmed COVID-19 cases
When President Akufo-Addo announced the lockdown a week ago, the COVID-19 cases in Ghana were 137. But the figure as of April 2, 2020, had risen to 204.
Accra has the highest numbers with over 180 cases.
At the time of the lockdown, only Greater Accra and the Ashanti regions had confirmed cases.
Five deaths have so far been recorded with three recoveries.
