Government allays lockdown fears

Information Minister Kojo Oppong Nkrumah has debunked reports that the country will be on lockdown from Sunday, March 22.

In a tweet announcing an address by President Nana Adddo Dankwa Akufo-Addo in the evening, Mr Oppong Nkrumah indicated that a lockdown of the country will not be part of the president’s message.

News went rife that the president was due to announce a possible two-week lockdown of the country, as a measure to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.

IMANI Vice President Bright Simons posited that the lockdown had been recommended to the president by the National Security Council as a measure to control the spread of the deadly coronavirus.

"Highly placed sources: Ghana's Prez advised by National Security Council to commence lockdown from tomorrow," he tweeted this today March 21, 2020.

He added that although the country needs drastic measures put in place, the government must not copy blindly from other countries who used the lockdown approach.

"We all agree that these are unprecedented times. But this is not the time to copy blindly. "Lockdown" must mean very specific things in an African context. Nothing generic.

"Examples: 1. most emergency workers have no cars of their own 2. Ambulance service is sclerotic 3. So public transport is part of critical transit system. 4. Community pharmacies are major health outlets. 5. Radio stations are the functional emergency frequencies. #SmartPolicyPls," his tweet read.



The country presently has recorded 19 confirmed cases of the global pandemic following an update by the Ghana Health Service on Saturday morning.

The report disclosed that the 17th case is a 55-year-old Ghanaian woman who resides in the United Kingdom but returned to Ghana about two weeks ago. After showing symptoms and getting tested, the results came out positive in the laboratory.

The 18th case is also a Ghanaian lady resident in the UK. The 84-year-old lady came to Ghana within the past two (2) weeks and developed symptoms. Laboratory tests of her sample confirmed the coronavirus.

A 27-year-old Chinese male who returned to Ghana and travelled to the Ashanti Region in the past two weeks developed symptoms and sample confirmed positive in the laboratory.

Additionally, the Information Minister affirmed that the case management of the victims of the coronavirus was encouraging.

“Case management reports show that the active cases are responding very well to treatment awaiting final cure tests. Our frontline response workers at hospitals and ports are doing well so far. #SpreadCalmNotFear” he stated