Speaker of Parliament, Alban Bagbin has rejected calls for Parliament to shut down after 71 persons, comprising 15 MPs and 56 staff tested positive for the novel coronavirus.

Following the confirmed cases, health experts, and Civil Society Organizations including Africa Centre for Parliamentary Affairs (ACEPA) have called on the leadership of Parliament to as a matter of urgency shut down Parliament to prevent further spread of the virus.

But addressing the House on Friday, the Speaker urged the lawmakers and staff of Parliament to take all precautionary measures to ensure that the disease does not spiral out of control at the Legislature.

He stressed that it would be suicidal for the country should the law making arm of government shut down because the disease was not effectively management when it was recorded in their sector.

“We should not allow Parliament to shut down that is not an alternative, it would be too suicidal for the whole country because there are a lot of things we have to do.

“Even for this country to be able to fight Covid-19, Parliament will have to work with the executive and the judiciary to keep Ghana alive. So let’s continue to be ‘Honourables’ that word is not an empty title. An Honourable Member of Parliament must behave honourably,” Mr Bagbin stated.

Meanwhile, the Minister-designate for Communications and Digitisation, Ursula Owusu-Ekuful has called out the Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research (NMIMR) for breaching the ethical standards of doctor-patient confidentiality.

She questioned why a reputable institution like Noguchi, will hand over testing results of MPs and their staff to leadership of Parliament without their prior knowledge and subsequent approval.

“Going forward, I think that it is important that they design a consent form that everyone who takes a test to notify them that their test will be shared with the Ghana Health Service for contact tracing purposes and with the head of department if it is an institution that request for the test.

“This will protect them [NMIMR] and the people who have had their samples taken are also assured that their result will be treated with the confidentiality it deserves,” she suggested.

But the Minority Chief Whip, Mohamed Muntaka Mubarak disagreed with Mrs Owusu-Ekuful stance that NMIMR has breached doctor-patient confidentiality.

Citing Article 18(2) which states that “no person shall be subjected to interference within the privacy of his home, property, correspondent or communication except in accordance with law as may be necessary in a free and democratic society for public safety or the economic wellbeing of the country and for the protection of health,” Mr Muntaka said the sharing of Covid-19 status with the leadership of Parliament is in compliance with the 1992 Constitution.

The Asawase MP further urged leadership to reject the test results of MPs from private laboratories undertaking Covid-19 test.

“This is a very serious thing, we must not play semantics with it. Let us come together as one people to defeat it and when we put in measures let us all abide by them.

“I completely disagree with people who say they have gone to do their own private tests. We must not accept that, we must have the same denominator for every one of us. NMIMR is an institution that is credible that we have selected that all of us should go through, therefore, all of us must subject ourselves to it for testing,” he stated.

Majority Leader, Osei Kyei Mensah Bonsu on his part called on members to stop bastardising private companies undertaking Covid-19 tests as if they're not credible facilities.