Ghanaian Times: Indiscipline can derail fight against coronavirus

Ever since the coronavirus started spreading, misinformation has been another virus that the world has had to grapple with. It has spread even faster than the COVID-19 itself and continues to affect millions negatively through social media.

And even before this ‘digital virus’ is surmounted, indiscipline has also reared its head, to derail efforts being made by various governments to eradicate the deadly disease which had brought the world on its knees.

In Ghana, the indiscipline has manifested in various forms, a situation which questions our commitment to the fight against a common enemy that attacks everyone regardless of class, age, financial and educational pedigree.

It started when the country recorded its first case of the COVID-19. Hand sanitiser sellers took advantage of the increased demand for the disinfectant to escalate prices.

We observed the public outcry that followed and condemnation on social media only for another group of traders to astronomically increase prices of food stuff in the market over the weekend.

Scores of people who rushed to the market to stock up for the partial lockdown announced by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo on Friday evening were left shocked at this behaviour. This is criminal and unruly.

Ironically, this was after the country had fasted on Wednesday to seek divine intervention. Why must we do this to ourselves when we know this is totally wrong and unchristian?

It was also indiscipline on the part of people who rushed to markets, gas filling stations and pre-paid electricity vending points as they flouted social distancing directives, a key measure in the fight against COVID-19.

That is not all. The spectacle we witnessed over the weekend of many people leaving Accra and Kumasi to other regions to escape the partial lockdown was uncalled for. What happened is likely to spread the virus faster.

When we thought the indiscipline would end with the restriction of the movement, about 16 people in Kasoa could not comport themselves and were apprehended by the police for flouting the lockdown directives.

Similarly, some drivers did not comply with directives to reduce the number of passengers they carried and it took the intervention of security personnel to whip them in line.

The Ghanaian Times finds these pockets of indiscipline disappointing as it would go a long way to perpetuate the same spread that the government has been trying to prevent.

The greatest damage would not be the waste of resources but the many people that are likely to die and the impact thereafter on the socio-economic development of the country.

It is at a time like this that concerted efforts is needed to face the virus head on and rescue the world from its claws. It is our responsibility as citizens to comply with directives to save our own lives.

We urge the security agencies to deal with recalcitrant persons who want to ruin gains being made. We must not allow a few stubborn people to pull us down.