President Akufo-Addo has attributed the increasing number of active number of COVID-19 cases to laxity on the part of Ghanaians towards the virus.
Presenting his 19th address on government’s enhanced response measures on the COVID-19 pandemic in the country, President Akufo-Addo lamented the flagrant flouting and breaching of COVID-19 safety protocols as indicative of spiraling into a second wave of infections.
“Now more than ever, we have to adhere to mask-wearing, hand washing, the use of sanitizers, and social distancing protocols that have become a part of our daily routines, and which has ensured that we do not impose, all over again, the restrictions we are seeing in other parts of the world.
“In order to help arrest this new threat of rising infections, Government is going to reaffirm the steps that have served us well so far. We are enhancing the measures of tracing, testing and treatment, i.e. the 3Ts. In addition to this, we will continue to limit the importation of the virus, embark on the strategic, controlled easing of public gatherings, enhance public education and information, and continue to provide relief and support to individuals, families and businesses”.
In government’s bid to rein in the rise in active cases of the virus, President Akufo-Addo noted measures has been put in place to ensure massive contact tracing.
“To this end, I have instructed the release of additional logistics, including vehicles, to the Ghana Health Service in order to help beef up contact tracing, and the supervision and monitoring of asymptomatic cases being managed from home. We are also employing the use of technology to augment our contact tracing efforts, as well as the supervision and monitoring of home care cases”.
Commenting on the compulsory testing at the airport, he stated that, some positive cases have been recorded, with the subsequent tasking of the Ministry of Health, through the Ghana Health Service, to “liaise with all laboratories and testing facilities across the country to ensure that reporting procedures are ironed out and adhered to”.
“With the imposition of stringent testing measures at the airport, we have, so far, been able to detect one hundred and seventy-two (172) positive cases amongst some fifty-four thousand (54,000) arriving international passengers. The airport authorities will continue to demand that passengers arriving in the country should be in possession of a seventy-two (72)-hour old negative PCR test, and we will continue to sanction airlines that flout this directive.
“The health authorities will intensify the follow-up process of arriving passengers, even when they have tested negative to help ensure we have ruled out any possible infection that may have occurred during the period of embarkation and disembarkation”.
According to the President, in as much as our hospitalization rates are very low, “care for the sick and the provision of treatment remain an important aspect of our strategy”.
“To this end, the one hundred-bed Ghana Infectious Diseases Centre, located at the Ga East Hospital, will be opened in the next few days, under the management of the Ghana Health Service. The provision of adequate medicines, equipment, and personal protective equipment to enable health workers to attend to home-based patients has also been guaranteed”.
