Coronavirus: Mass disinfection exercise conducted in Accra markets

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The Ministry of Local Government as part of government’s efforts to manage the spread of the deadly Coronavirus, has conducted a disinfection exercise in 136 markets and other commercial parts of the Greater Accra Region.

This comes after an announcement of a planned closure of markets in the city was made by the Accra Metropolitan Assembly to pave way for the exercise conducted today.

In an interview with www.ghanaweb.com, the Mayor of the Accra Metropolitan Assembly, Mohammed Adjei Sowah, said the exercise which was conducted with the help of the Ghana Armed Forces and the Ghana Police Service who were on hand to ensure public compliance with the one-day ban on commercial activities.

The fumigation exercise, the Mayor added 1,300 spraying officers dispatched to the various markets across the city for the exercise.

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He indicated that the assembly expects the exercise to be completed by the close of today to ensure trading and commercial activities resume to normalcy from tomorrow morning.

On the safety of the general public relative to the chemicals being used in the exercise, the Mayor told GhanaWeb that chlorine was the active chemical being used for the disinfection, which makes it safe for activities to resume the next day without any fear of human reaction to the chemical.

“It’s a chlorine, that’s what I am told of and though it is not a toxic chemical, in an operational area for health and safety purposes, we need to provide the space and comfort for the people who are working to ensure that they get the right environment to do the work. We don’t want any chaos so that’s why markets have been totally closed temporally for today and by tomorrow morning god willing business will start again.”

He said among other things that based on the advice and recommendations of the Inter-Ministerial Committee instituted by the president in the fight against COVID-19, the assembly may embark on other exercises.

Speaking on the panic buying which caused markets in the city to be overcrowded between Friday and Sunday, Adjei Sowah said the situation was a result of the misinformation done by some persons who interpreted the one-day closure of markets as a total shutdown of the city.