The Ghana Private Road Transport Union (GPRTU) has declared its intent of constituting a task force to enforce and monitor compliance of COVID-19 safety protocols at their various bus terminals.
On the occasion of the surge in COVID case and in adherence to the directive issued by President Akufo-Addo, the General Secretary of the GPRTU, Godfred Abulbire Adogma, said they also intend to have ad-hoc visits to these terminals to ensure that there is absolute compliance.
“We now have to compulsorily set up some task force that will ground and make sure that there is full compliance to the safety precautions and directives of the President. We will also have some unannounced visits to the loading terminals and have road patrols and see whether the most of [them will comply]. Any travelling passenger should have them or even buy them when they get to the station”.
The General Secretary for Concerned Drivers’ Union, David Agboado, on his part, also disclosed it has relayed information to its members to endear their passengers to comply with the rules on Covid-19 protocols or face being ejected out of the buses.
He intimated that, although sanitizers and veronica buckets have been provided to members, they want the government to provide them with face masks.
“We have sent the signal to all our various branches across Ghana that from tomorrow, they should make it serious that anybody without face mask should not enter any car. The veronica buckets and the sanitizers; we have provided it ourselves, but things like the face mask, if the government can give us some because some people may not be able to afford it”.
The surge in the number of COVID-19 cases in the country has been associated with activities which occurred during the yuletide.
That notwithstanding, the Head of Quality Control at the Ghana Tourism Authority, Mr. Alex Boakye explained that during the festivities, he revealed the Ghana Tourism Authority embarked on an enforcement exercise to ensure full compliance of the President’s directive on Covid-19 protocols as stated in his 20th address.
In line with the President’s directive on the reinforcement of face mask wearing in his 22nd address, Mr. Boakye said stringent actions were being taken by the Authority.
“So, we visited a number of beach recreational facilities as well as entertainment enterprises… all these establishments as have been indicated by the president must remain closed.
“Unfortunately, some of them were operating, so, we had to clamp down on those establishments as well as display the notice of closure to inform the public they are not supposed to operate”.
With the increasingly worrying rise in COVID numbers, President Akufo-Addo has expressed worry over the growth. However, speaking on the Authority’s new development in dealing with flouters of the regulations, Mr. Boakye said they will “intensify the enforcement exercise”.
“If you listen to what His Excellency the President recounted, the statistics, it’s quite alarming and our lives are at stake. So, I believe that this time around, the operators as well as the prospective patrons will cooperate with us so that we can ensure the full compliance of the President’s directive”.
