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President Akufo Addo:  Ghana on path to eliminate COVID-19

President Akufo Addo:  Ghana on path to eliminate COVID-19

Ghana is steadily on the path towards containing and eliminating the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), President Nana Addo Akufo-Addo has said.

He said, “at a first glance, it could be alarming to see 32,969 people contract the virus in five months, but a closer look at the data indicates that the country is steadily on the path towards limiting and containing the virus and, ultimately, defeating it.”

In his 14th address on the national response to the pandemic on Sunday, July 26, 2020, the President said the recovery rate had improved from 75 per cent of positives a month ago to 89.5 per cent, all in one month.

“A month ago, the number of recoveries stood at 12, 994, but today it is 29, 494,” he said.

He further noted that the hospitalization and death rates had consistently been very low — one of the lowest in Africa and the world.

“The Ghanaian people, mercifully, are not dying of the virus in the hundreds and thousands that were earlier anticipated and predicted, and that are being seen on a daily basis in some other countries,” he stated

Phase two of easing of restrictions

Noting that life could not be put on hold indefinitely once it was clear that until treatment was found, the COVID-19 would remain a part of life, President Akufo-Addo announced further easing of COVID-19 restrictions covering congregational worshipping, entertainment sites, transport operations and soccer activities.

Congregational worshipping

On congregational worshipping, he said based on the high level of compliance with the safety protocols demonstrated by religious bodies, from 1st August, 2020, the restrictions on the number of congregants worshipping at a time in church will be lifted, with the length of worship extended from one to two hours per service.”

“Church leaders, who are desirous of implementing this enhanced easing directive, must ensure that congregants wear nose masks at all times, and the one metre social distancing rule is scrupulously applied. These same guidelines apply to worship in our mosques,” he added.

Entertainment

The President also announced the reopening of the nation’s tourist sites and attractions to enable them begin to receive visitors.

He said open air drinking spots can now function and tasked the management of these facilities to enforce enhanced hygiene and social distancing protocols.

However, beaches, pubs, cinemas and nightclubs remained closed until further notice.

Transportation

“The government has taken the decision to lift restrictions in the transport sector and allow for full capacity in our domestic airplanes, taxis, trotros and buses,” President Akufo-Addo told the nation.

Nonetheless, he indicated, the wearing of masks in vehicles and aircraft and maintenance of enhanced hygiene protocols remained mandatory.

While stating that the air, land and sea borders will remain closed for human traffic until further notice, Ghanaians who were stranded abroad will be provided special dispensation for the evacuation of such people to enable the come back home. These individuals will be subjected to the mandatory quarantine and safety protocols.

Education

Touching on the gradual reopening of the schools to enable final year students at various levels of education finish the school year and take their exams, President Akufo-Addo observed that “over 750,000 persons, comprising students, teachers and non-teaching staff, in our Junior High Schools are back to school to prepare for and write the Basic Education Certificate Examination.

Three hundred and seventy thousand final year SHS students, who have been in school for five (5) weeks, have started writing the West African Senior Secondary School Certificate Examination, while 127,143 students in Universities and other tertiary institutions have now all virtually completed their final examinations.

“Mercifully, we have witnessed only a few cases of infections in our Universities and other tertiary institutions; the few students who tested positive in a few of our Senior High Schools have all either recovered or are on the path to full recovery, and will write the WASSCE. As well, few final year Junior High School students, who have tested positive and who are largely asymptomatic, are being managed in isolation centers”, he stated.

The president indicated that government continues to engage with stakeholders in the education sector to determine conditions and plans for the future re-opening of schools, after the current examinations are concluded by mid-September.

Individual obligation

He emphasized that the phased opening up of the country puts an individual obligation and responsibility on each one to continue to remain vigilant, and respect the enhanced hygiene, mask wearing and social distancing protocols that have become part and parcel of the daily routine.

“These changes I have announced transition us into a new phase of our COVID-19 fight, in which we teach ourselves how to live responsibly with Coronavirus. We do not expect to go back to the way things were five months ago – but we should create a “new normal”, where we are constantly figuring out how to go to work, keep our businesses and places of worship open, send our children to school, and, all the time, keeping safe, containing the spread of the disease, and acting swiftly where and whenever hotspots appear,” the President concluded.