Lock down now, your delays caused the spread – TUC to government

The Trades Union Congress (TUC) has blamed government for the seeming spread of coronavirus in Ghana.

According to the head of research of the TUC, Dr. Kwabena Nyarko Otoo, Ghana could have avoided some of the cases of covid-19 if government had taken the decision to shut the borders early.

Speaking to Francis Abban on the Morning Starr Tuesday, Dr. Nyarko urged government to immediately lock down the country in order to avoid further spread of the deadly virus.

”If the ports had shut down a little bit earlier, we wouldn’t have imported some of the cases. We have realized that the delay is what has led us to where we are now. We think that a gradual lock down will be like what we have already in place. There are many who cannot even afford the sanitizers and it is impossible to do social distancing in public transports and all that.

“So considering all these things, We think that giving the many risks, the best thing to do is to shut down, a general lock down. In 28 days when we had locked down the country, we would have reduced the risk of the spread,” he said.

Meanwhile, one more person has died of coronavirus in Ghana bringing the total number of recorded deaths from the virus to two.

Also, the number of confirmed cases has risen from 24 to 27, the health ministry has announced on its dedicated website.

According to the Ghana Health Service: “All the twenty-five (25) confirmed cases are receiving treatment in isolation. Among the confirmed cases, twenty (20) are of Ghanaian nationality, the majority of whom returned home from affected countries. Seven (7) are of other nationals namely: Norway, Lebanon, China, France, UK.

“In respect of contact tracing, a total of 598 contacts have been identified and are being tracked. One (1) of the contacts developed symptoms and has been confirmed positive.

“Nineteen (19) people have completed the 14 days of mandatory follow up”.

China, Italy, Iran, Spain and Germany have suffered the highest number of infections.

The current death toll suggests 4 per cent of patients who catch the virus die from it.

But experts say the death rate is probably lower than that because the true number of infections is much higher is far greater because some countries, including the UK, are only testing people hospitalised by the illness.