A team of military and police officers on Saturday embarked on a decongestion exercise at the Okaishie market in Accra.
The exercise was aimed at ensuring compliance with the social distancing directive as one of the measures towards fighting COVID-19.
While retail shops were ordered to shut down, vendors of perishable and other food items were allowed to sell.
Speaking to Citi News, the leader of the team, ACP Martin Ayih said his personnel are determined to ensure compliance of the directive on the partial lockdown.
“We were informed that most of the shops at Okaishie drug lane are all operating at full capacity. So we came round and lo and behold it was true. We warned them to pack because a lot of people have converged here as a result of the closure of other markets in Accra. We also noticed that nobody was observing social distancing so we thought that it will not do us good if they continue to trade here so we advised them to lock the shops up.”
Kasoa traders relocated to ‘new markets’ to enforce social distancing
Traders at the Kasoa Old and New Markets have also been relocated to four new satellite markets which are going to operate a shift system.
Earlier on Tuesday, the Awutu Senya East Municipality announced the closure of the Kasoa Old and New markets after traders refused to comply with the spacing, rotation and other healthy guideline policies proposed by the assembly to curtail the spread of the novel coronavirus.
“What is happening is that Kasoa Market is not like other markets in that it is a food basket that serves the West African sub-region. And so we cannot compare this market to the rest. The MCE met us and allocated satellite markets to us so it means that we have to work with the various groupings to make sure everybody gets a space,” Alhaji Haroune Tetteh Mensah, convenor for Odukponkpehe Market Retailers Association said.
COVID-19 cases in Ghana shoot up to 408, death toll now 8
The confirmed cases of the novel Coronavirus in Ghana have increased to 408 as the death toll has also risen to eight.
This was confirmed by the Ghana Health Service (GHS).
The breakdown of the 408 positive cases are as follows: four (4) have been treated, discharged and have tested negative, 394 cases have been categorised as mild disease on treatment, two (2) moderate to severe cases, none currently on ventilators and eight (8) have died.
