President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo says the government has not taken any decision to lock down the country or parts of the country as a measure to contain the spread of the coronavirus (COVID-19).
The President believes that the decision to lock down the country will have serious implications on ordinary Ghanaians.
“The majority of our people who will be affected by the decision of a lockdown are the ordinary people of Ghana, the working people of our nation,” he said.
However, he said the government was considering all possible implications of such a decision before it would be considered.
“A responsible government is required to look at all the implications before decisions are made. I am hopeful that much sooner than later, we will come into an agreement within government on what to do and then the Ghanaian people will be informed,” he said.
President Akufo-Addo said this at a meeting with the Trade Union Congress (TUC) at the Jubilee House in Accra yesterday on the COVID-19 global pandemic which is spreading in the country at an alarming rate.
He said the government would continue to review the measures taken so far and take decisions that would put the country in a strong position to limit the spread of the virus.
The President indicated that the government had taken important decisions to curtail the importation of the virus from outside the shores of the country and strengthened the capacity of health workers to take care of victims.
According to him, the government has been vindicated in its decision to close the country’s borders, ban international travels, and quarantine and subject those who came in the aftermath of the announcement to mandatory testing.
During the quarantine and mandatory testing, he said health workers had identified many people who, unknowingly, had the disease.
President Akufo-Addo thanked the TUC for supporting the measures the government had taken so far to address the pandemic and pledged to take decisions to bring the disease under control.
“We are constantly reviewing the measures that we have taken to ensure that we are abreast with the issues so that we can provide the appropriate antidote,” he said.
The Secretary General of TUC, Yaw Baah, said the TUC supported the government’s difficult but necessary decisions to address the pandemic.
He said a number of Ghanaians could not afford to buy face masks and hand sanitisers to protect themselves from the disease and appealed to the President to assist in that regard by making such products available free of charge or at very affordable prices.
BY YAW KYEI
