Meaning behind Akufo-Addo's fabric for 23rd coronavirus update

Having started his second term in a new year, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo may have not wished for a period where the major focus of his government would be fighting a pandemic that is wreaking havoc on citizens and the economy.

Just like the last year of his first term, 2021 despite being only a month old has promised to be a difficult one. This was conveyed by the president in his update number 23 on Ghana's fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.

The president from his first COVID-19 update has used local fabrics which is a common feature of his wardrobe to add extra meaning to his messages and also communicate through adages embedded in the fabrics.

His address number 23 to the nation on Sunday, February 31, 2021, gave details on Ghana’s situation which he said has gotten worse over the past two weeks and this was summed up in the meaning behind the fabric the president wore.

The message was simple but with deeper insight, with an Akan background it read “Afe Bi Y? San” which translates into “some years come with trials or crisis.”

This will be the second time the president has donned this particular fabric in his address to the nation on the COVID-19 fight.

The first time was during his 8th address on April 26, 2020. At the time, the total number of confirmed infections in Ghana had gone from one thousand and forty-two (1,042) to one thousand, five hundred and fifty (1,550).

“Our recoveries are now one hundred and fifty-five (155), and deaths eleven (11). The two (2) new cases of deaths, like the other nine (9), are all of persons with underlying health issues, what the doctors call comorbidity,” the president said in his address.

Almost nine months since then, Ghana’s COVID-19 numbers after showing good prospects of a reduction have in the last two weeks taken a significant spike.

“As of Friday, 29th January, sixty-four (64) more people have, sadly, died, over the last two weeks, bringing the total number of confirmed deaths to four hundred and sixteen (416). Our hospitalization rates are increasing, with the number of critically and severely ill persons now at one hundred and seventy-two (172).

Our hospitals have become full, and we have had to reactivate our isolation centres. Our average daily rates of infection now stand at seven hundred (700), compared to two hundred (200) two weeks ago.

The total number of active cases has more than doubled, from a little over one thousand, nine hundred (1,900), two weeks ago, to five thousand, three hundred and fifty-eight (5,358) currently.,” the President stated in his recent address on Sunday.