What Ghana must know about COVID-19 pandemic and the way forward

When the days are long and nights are longer, I am left with nothing than to think and write. This has been long in coming from my desk. But take a read as I would update it by Monday.

How does the coronavirus outbreak end?

Aggressive diagnostic testing, isolation of the sick, and contact tracing — can work. Just look at China.

Evidence is mounting that early in the outbreak, in January and February, China bought the world time with its aggressive action to contain the viral outbreak in its borders. New cases in China are now declining, seemingly because of the government’s dramatic measures to contain the virus — mainly case finding, contact tracing, and suspension of public gatherings — as WHO epidemiologist Bruce Aylward, who led a recent mission there, told my colleague Julia Belluz.

In the coming days and weeks, you might be asked to restrict your movements in ways that are inconvenient. Perhaps it’s useful to think of it as a civic responsibility, like jury duty. The risk of COVID-19 is public. Individuals can get the disease and be just fine but then spread it to people who will die from it. Our actions are to protect not just ourselves but for others too. All of this will be done in the name of “social distancing,” a catchall name for policies meant to reduce the average frequency and intensity of people’s exposure to the virus during an outbreak. Now that it looks like the respiratory disease will not be able to be contained, social distancing can avert an explosion in cases that overwhelms the health care system. Clearly, there is a social, economic, and cultural cost to social distancing. But the potential cost of not doing it correctly maybe even greater.

Currently, Ghana is faced with inconveniences in response to the COVID-19 outbreak. Due to the partial lockdown in affected areas, People have been restricted from their usual routines, organizations have been stalled, church services have been suspended, schools have been closed indefinitely, and big public events have been suspended.

Over the past twelve (12) days (since the introduction of the enhanced surveillance), a number of measures have been introduced to control and prevent further spread of COVID-19 in Ghana. Among these include restrictive movement in the hot spots of the outbreak, intensive contact tracing and laboratory testing, social distancing, and intensive public education. These measures have resulted in a sudden increase in case detection, with a high number of cases being reported.

Government absorbs electricity bills As part of measures to ease the economic burden on Ghanaians during the COVID-19 outbreak, such as absorbing three months of water bills in an earlier address to the nation, the government has announced that it will cut 50% off electricity bills for commercial and residential consumers. In an address on Thursday evening, 9th April 2020, President Akufo-Addo also announced that lockdown in the capital Accra and the mineral-rich Ashanti region will be extended for one more week.

“We have decided that for the next three months, the government will fully absorb electricity bills for the poorest of the poor, i.e. for all lifeline consumers, who consume 0 to 50 kilowatt-hours a month for this period”.

“For all other consumers, residential and commercial, the Government will absorb, again, 50% of your electricity bill for the next three months. I urge all Ghanaians to exercise discipline in their use of water and electricity,” he stressed.

The main concern here is that the 50% waiver by Government, even though looks good was rather high and should have been 25% instead. Are we not overburdening ourselves as a country trying to alleviate COVID-19?

Who are the front-line workers? Front-line health workers are persons who "have been deployed to respond to COVID-19". When the president gave his 5th address on COVID-19, he stated that health workers were to enjoy 3 months of tax-free salaries. However, front-line health workers would enjoy an additional benefit of 50% more of their basic salary. Clearly, this caveat means not all health workers are front-line workers.

So, the big question is, "Who is a front-line health worker?" These are health workers including contact tracers, isolation centers nurses and doctors, field epidemiologists janitors, cleaners, orderlies, among others, etc. President Akufo-Addo mentioned at least nine categories of workers who are unaffected by the lockdown. They included bankers, health workers, employees within all three arms of government, employees within the utility sector such as the Electricity Company of Ghana, VALCO, Ghana Water Company Ltd as well as the Transport Unions and Workers at fuel stations.

What are Tax Reliefs and who are the beneficiaries? Tax relief is an approved deductible allowance intended to reduce the employee’s taxable income and thereby lessen his/her tax burden. The tax relief is granted against the employee’s accessible income for a particular year of assessment. Relief is granted on an annual base.

For relief to be granted, the employee’s personal circumstances are always taken into consideration. For instance, it is considered that a married person with children attending school will normally be more hard-pressed than a person who is single and has no familial responsibilities. Other reliefs are linked to the making of some kind of payment or disbursement (e.g. the payment of a child’s school fees or payment to a charitable organization).

Can we propose a partial opening of the economy by 25%? What does it mean to open up 25% of Private, Public and informal sectors? Instead of locking the areas partially or completely, one-quarter of the sectors could be open to regulating Ghana’s economy. It could be 25% for all sectors such that: Private Sectors can resume work in the office for 3 weeks provided they are less than 25 and will undergo Mandatory Testing. If this strategy goes well, then the other sectors could follow suit and open up the economy.

Inter-Regional Conversations: At the moment, Ghana out of the 27,346 cases recorded, 408 cases have been confirmed, 04 treated and discharged, 02 moderate to severe cases, 394 on treatment and unfortunately 08 death cases.

Regions that have reported cases are Greater Accra, Ashanti, Central, Eastern, Northern, North East, Upper East, and Upper West regions. Leaving about “7” regions which have no recorded cases. As the partial lockdown has been extended, can we take economic activities to these unaffected regions, to augment the entire revenue of the country.

What are the thoughts around preventing the virus from entering these unaffected regions? Are they essentially practising social distancing and using hand sanitize? 1. Intense surveillance for suspected severe acute respiratory infections to be picked and tested for confirmation. 2. Public Health preparedness plans have been prepared and ready to be activated in the event of a pandemic in line with the International Health Regulations (2005). 3. Risk communication activities have been planned and aspects of it has started such as granting radio and TV interviews and port education on the virus. Most / All parts of Ghana have the necessary education about the virus and have made provisions for hand-washing and the use of sanitizers. All directives on social distancing apply to all regions in Ghana and are followed as such.

HEALTH It is undoubtedly a fact that the team in charge of the COVID-19 issues in Ghana are doing great work. We seem to be on top of our game, you can choose to dispute this blindly or politically but facts do not lie. South Africa has recorded over 2000 cases and has tested over 73,000 of citizens making them the 1st African country with the highest testing records.

Ghana on the other hand, is the 2nd African country with the highest number of testing which is, around 27,346 which is massive considering the number of positive cases. Samples of tests are sent to Noguchi.

What are the conversations surrounding the hot spots of testing to ensure Noguchi and sister testing unit are not overburdened looking at the16 regions of the Southern belts. In terms of no flights due to the lockdown, how then are these samples sorted for easy transportation to these hot spots. Also, how are we as nation planning to make provision of other testing centers to relieve the 2 hot spots from being overburdened as a result of pressure.

TRADE Border closure: The border closure that took effect on the 22nd of March 2020 was to last for two weeks according to President Nana Akufo-Addo and “will not apply to goods, supplies and cargo.” “All our borders; by land, sea and air, will be closed to human traffic for the next two weeks beginning midnight on Sunday,” he said in an address to the Nation on Saturday evening.

President Akufo-Addo said the government’s aim with all its measures are to “limit and stop the importation of the virus; contain its spread; provide adequate care for the sick; limit the impact of the virus on social and economic life and inspire the expansion of our domestic capability and deepen our self-reliance.”

1. How do people have access to food and other essentials to survive if the lockdown stretches over days given our income levels, especially those who earn daily wages. Like taxi drivers, laborers etc. If they don't go to work, they'll starve. Most families live ‘hand to mouth’ and on a daily basis how do we assist them to cope. 2. How do we ensure that there is enough food in the system since people would have to stock at certain points during the lockdown? 3. How do we replenish stocks? 4. How do we ensure the stability of prices? Can Ghana partially open her borders to allow economic trade? Otherwise, the country will at a point hit many crisis such as food shortage by June 2020. Low risk businesses should be opened partially to enable the economy to kick start.

HOUSING/RENTS Most rents are paid 2 years advance in Ghana. In terms of expiry, The commercial real estate sector in Ghana will be the most hard hit when it comes to this virus. If left unchecked, malls and shopping centers will see a decline in shoppers which means the loss millions of cedis in revenue for these brick and mortar businesses. Recreational centers like parks, bars, swimming pools and restaurants can also expect their revenue to dwindle as people stay indoors and make their own food. Depending on the severity of the virus in the coming months, a number of events are expected to be postponed. This means serious loss of business for some of these event spaces as well as organizers.

The timeline of upcoming development projects will also be affected. Workers are likely to stay away from construction sites in the face of this pandemic. This means many upcoming projects will be postponed until the situation is put under control. Lastly, property viewings can be expected to significantly reduce, if not cancelled altogether. For fear of contracting the virus, home seekers and agents alike will stay away from physically visiting properties. Instead, real estate companies will have to rely on new technologies such as virtual reality to showcase homes digitally. This is an efficient way to continue to show property with limited risk of contracting COVID-19. Start ups like Virtual Ghana are in a position to provide a much needed service to the real estate industry in the face of this global pandemic.

With the emergence of COVID-19, countries around the world have issued statements making it a criminal offence for any property owner to demand rent for the next three months. Certainly, it is time for Ghana to take a critical look at how the Rent Act can be enforced. The states’ ability to enforce the Rent Act will be a great economic relief on Ghanaians.

The “cedi rental market”, seems not to have suffered major liquidity challenges concerning rent payment since property owners have taken their rent in advance which is unlike the European markets. Currently, there may not be an immediate effect of COVID-19 on the cedi property market as the majority of them have taken rent in advance from tenants. Meanwhile in the “dollar rental market”, there are many factors that might affect the flow of business, as property owners accept a refundable security deposit and rental payments monthly. Property owners may have to give their tenants some moratorium on rent payments.

Most tenants in this category are expatriates and due to the global pandemic, there has been a shutdown of most corporate headquarters which may cause a delay in expatriate’s rental payments. Property owners in these segments may need to make some concessions for their tenants, similar to the European markets.

The dollar property market is bound to see a decreasing trend with respect to rentals due to the closure of Ghana’s airports and travel restrictions worldwide. In a nutshell, the rental market including hotels will be hit hard thanks to the spread of the virus.

a. What is government proposing to support many Ghanaians during this period of lockdown?

b. Can the government absorb 25% of people’s rent?

c. Can a policy be issued negotiating flexibility in payments?

EDUCATION Basic schools/ Senior High and Tertiary students have missed out 3 weeks of academic work. Chances that this could eat into the third term is high.

i. Can basic schools start a track system so they do not lose out?

ii. What measures are being put in place to resolve this?

iii. What happens to teachers and livelihood? Remember: not all students foot full fees for and so the school’s income generations become extremely low.

We are thinking of a Policy statement in a number of ways :

1. The academic calendar continues.

2. Parents pick up classwork. How homework and activity enough for the week on Monday and drop off on Friday.

3. Children's home school with parent supervision. Pay minimal school fees due to this crisis thus, pay only tuition fees and books.

4. PTA needs to think through how this impacts Teachers' welfare.

Government schools can be managed in a wholesale manner:

1. Children stay home.

2. GTV Education platform to be set for all schools to study. (especially Government schools)

3. Assignments are given on TV and delivered either weekly or bi-weekly to the local assembly to be sent to each Government school.

4. BECE and WAEC are critical at this stage.

Private schools were made to stay home from 16th March 2020. This was 4 weeks before vacation. On a policy directive; Can we have schools either lay off some of their non-essential workers?

i. Most classes have 2 teachers, 1 main teacher, and an assistant. Can there be a reform to keep the labour task force to a minimal number to keep the Educational set up going? 1 teacher each can be laid off when schools resume since most parents with school fees arrears may rather withdraw their wards to escape fee payments. This will mean lesser kids in class. The complex dynamics here is that smaller cheap schools may get immediate high enrollment against bigger and organized schools.

ii. Most schools receive fees payment in at least a 3-time installment, end of January, end of February and end of March. This means about 30% of fee income was lost since we never saw the end of March.

iii. About 40% of the school's income is also generated from canteen ( usually lunch) payments to support the smooth running of school affairs. This canteen payment is usually paid either daily or at most weekly. This canteen payment is heavily dependent on because parents find it easier to pay for food than for tuition.

iv. Most private schools also pay exams and daily fees separately and this payment also never happened even though some were through with printing and running copies of exams questions.

v. Children may not be able to practice strict social distancing but can be supervised to strictly wear face mask throughout the day as well as observing the frequent washing of hands and cleaners also sanitizing surfaces often.

vi. For the next year, two extra weeks can be added to each term to recover the time lost whilst staying home, especially if we stay home till May and beyond.

vii. This can be achieved only online and so the smartphone and data issues may apply. Aside from that, if kids are home, then a parent or guardian must also be home, even if this is achieved., most parents will default payment. Most fees are recouped through sacking kids to go home, so if they are already home, then no fees would be paid.

viii. Online learning isn't possible because we have about 50% of parents either not using smartphones or not technologically inclined to coordinate online smoothly.

ix. Even most teachers don’t have laptops and constant internet connectivity.

x. Statutory payments, that is, SSNIT and paye should be suspended till about two months after lockdown without accumulating penalties. For instance, if we resume in June or July, we would pay July and March, then in August we pay August and April and in that order till we pay June.

xi. Arrangements have been made for an online end of second term exams available for parents at a cost of 40 cedis per child, only 12 parents out of 500 children have registered to take the exams. This is the reality of staying home syndrome. It is huge a cost to the school for putting these arrangements in place.

Education is key and requires a WHOLISTIC Approach. What should we be doing for our nation during this COVID-19? 1. Let's BRING REFORMS. 2. Ghana must follow rational thinking. Let's not talk the talk and walk the walk.

References CitiNewsroom: Coronavirus - Ghana to close all borders from Sunday, by Delali Adogla-Bessa COVID-19 and social distancing in Ghana: difficulties and how to overcome them. Theghanareport.com: Akufo-Addo imposes partial lockdown, Appiah, E. 25th March 2020 Resnick, Brian (10 March 2020). "Italy and China used lockdowns to slow the coronavirus. Could we?". VOX. Retrieved 25 March 2020.

https://ghanahealthservice.org/covid19/

https://ghanahealthservice.org/covid19/faqs.php

https://propertytrendsonline.com/impact-of-coronavirus-on-real-estate-in-ghana/

https://www.modernghana.com/news/991226/preparing-for-a-lockdown-some-useful-suggestions.html

#KandifoInstitute #KeepLeading #Covid19 #WeAreStayingHome

By: Palgrave Boakye-Danquah

Executive Director

Kandifo Institute