Lockdown: Bad Attempt By Akufo-Addo To Fight Coronavirus – Indpendent Presidential Candidate

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An independent presidential candidate in Ghana, Mr Onipayede Ossom Teye has revealed that the approach by the Akufo-Addo led NPP government in the fight against coronavirus is not the best especially with the partial lockdown in Greater Accra, Kasoa and greater Kumasi.

According to the able presidential aspirant, it appears the president is copying what other countries are doing by imposing lockdowns that have since not helped in reducing cases of the deadly covid-19 wordwide.

Mr Ossom Teye in a phone interview on Radio 1fm 100.7MHZ, he revealed that if he were the president, he would allow mass testing in all the health centers in Ghana in that one would only have to walk into a health care center and be tested.

Again, Mr Ossom Teye said the timing of the directive which caused fear and panic made people escaped the lockdown areas and are potentially going to spread the virus.

“I don’t believe the decision to lockdown some cities is the way to clamp down this virus. President should have allowed mass testing and at a free will in every health center in Ghana and that we would know those who are infected and we deal with it. Our economic standing is also not like other countries and locking down would bring a lot of burdens on the ordinary Ghanaian and mind you, people may even die out of hunger but not because of coronavirus because a majority of Ghanaians are into hand to mouth jobs” – Ossom Teye said

Not only that, he added that the lockdown has increased the financial burdens of the breadwinners in the families even as traders are astronomically increasing the costs of their goods and services.

Ghana has imposed a 14-day partial lockdown in some parts of the country which are subjected to renewal.

SITUATION UPDATE, CONFIRMED COVID-19 CASES IN GHANA AS AT 31ST MARCH 2020, 15:00HRS

As at 31 st March 2020, 15:00 hrs, nine (9) new cases of COVID-19 have been reported from NMIMR since the last update at 08:30hrs on 30th March 2020. All nine (9) were reported from Accra, three (3) of them travelled to Ghana within the past 14 days from Germany, France and Hungary respectively but for six (6) of them there is no history of travel outside.

The Kumasi Centre for Collaborative Research (KCCR) also reported on tests from 77 samples including samples from 41 asymptomatic contacts of a case from Tamale Teaching Hospital and all are NEGATIVE for COVID-19.

This brings up to a total of 161 confirmed COVID-19 cases in Ghana, including five (5) deaths as of 31 st March 2020 at 15:00Hr.

Three (3) of the confirmed cases have fully recovered and reverted to negative status for COVID-19 after repeat test following recovery from symptoms. As at 31st March 2020, additional thirty-one (31) confirmed cases have significantly improved with no symptoms and have been discharged from admission for home care pending repetition of laboratory tests. This adds to the 18 that were earlier being managed from home and bring the number of cases on home care to forty-nine (49).

Processes for enhanced contact tracing and laboratory testing have been initiated. A total of 1,185 contacts have been identified and are being followed up.

**All five (5) deaths had underlying chronic medical conditions prior to COVID-19 infection.

By: Radio1News|Ghana|Obido Nana Gyasi