Coronavirus: Govt to conclude consultations on easing restrictions this week – Akufo-Addo

Government will, by the end of the coming week, conclude consultations towards easing the coronavirus restrictions, President Akufo-Addo has said.

Speaking at the 2020 Virtual Eid ul-Fitr celebrations at the GBC studios in Accra, the president said he will soon announce to Ghanaians, a road map for easing the restrictions amid efforts to ‘live with the virus’.

“As the stakeholder consultations continue to take place on the way forward towards the easing of restrictions so that our social and economic lives can go back to normal, I expect these consultations to conclude this week so that I can announce to Ghanaians a clear road map to easing the coronavirus restrictions,” he stated.

“We have to find a way, but in safety, for we cannot be under these restrictions forever,” the president added.

Akufo-Addo noted three reasons he was basing his decision on easing the coronavirus restrictions; the rate of death for confirmed cases being very low, secondly; the number of severe virus cases being persistently low and thirdly; a more robust mechanism for enforcing a central strategy for defeating the virus.

“It appears that by the Grace of God, Ghanaians are not dying of this virus in the number that were originally anticipated and feared,” he indicated.

He however disclosed there were 16 severe cases of coronavirus in hospitals around the country with none of the infected patients placed on a ventilating machine.

“We pray for their speedy recovery,” he stressed.

Due to the COVID-19 preventive restrictions on social gathering, Muslim faithfuls in Ghana held a virtual celebration prayer which was led by the Eminent National Chief Imam, Sheikh Dr. Osmanu Nuhu Sharubutu supported by the Muslim leaders at the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation house on Sunday, May 24, 2020.

In attendance was the President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, Vice President Dr Bawumia, Minister for Zongo Development, Mustapha Hamid and the newly appointed Supreme Court judge, Justice Amadu Tanko.