According to the Ghana Health Service on the current state of COVID-19 in the country, the death case count has shot up to 505 from 494 since February 12, 2021, the last update from the service.
This shoot indicates that, 11 more people have lost their lives to the virus in the last three days.
According to the service, the active case of the country has also reached a total of 7509 indicating an addition of 790 new active cases recorded.
According to the reports also, the cumulative figure is now 74,347 and out of that 66,333 have recovered and discharged.
As cases continue to surge, the constant calls for the closure of schools is being iterated by various stakeholders across the country. The Ghana Medical Association (GMA), notable among the stakeholders urged the Ghana Education Service to establish a threshold for closure of schools in the wake of COVID-19.
According to the GMA, some level of infections of the virus in schools should lead to a shutdown since more schools are recording infections. The Associations call, followed similar demands from the minority and some parents who have expressed fear of more infections in schools.
But on the other hand, Education Minister-designate Dr Yaw Adutwum dismissed the demands for the immediate closure of schools.
Dr Adutwum who took his turn before the Appointments Committee of Parliament said, he would only sanction the closure of schools if available statistics on infection warrants that.
When questioned on his understanding of the spread as reported by Child Rights International in the schools and governments insistence that schools must remain open, he posited that, schools should remain open to the extent that “we can ensure that the schools are clean, PPEs are supplied and Ghanaians are following all the protocols”.
He also said that, to the extent that the schools can be a safer environment than the home or the community, then he would say schools should remained open.
He then noted that, government is ensuring that students are going through routines to follow protocols, teachers are being trained so that the protocols will become the second nature to the students and schools ensuring that there’s a lesson unit that teaches about disease spread in reference to Covid-19.
Dr. Adtwum stated that, these are critical issues, adding that government is ensuring that the new task force that is being developed for schools include an opportunity for timely reporting of places where there is a suspected case.
He said that, if all these things are done and “we are ahead of the disease in terms of decision making”, he would say the school becomes the safest environment for the children to be.
Dr Adutwum stressed that, if schools are not able to achieve all these plans then it makes sense to say the schools should be closed down. He said, GES and GHS are in partnership and doing a very good job in terms of ensuring that the nation gets ahead of the virus and make the critical decision that affects the children in the schools.
