Africa Centre for Security and Intelligence Studies (ACSIS) is the latest to add its voice to the list of organisations piling pressure on government to lockdown the country immediately.

Although some experts have cautioned government against resorting to such a drastic measure, ASCIS believes “the best strategy to win the fight against the virus”.

This was contained in a press release which detailed the Centres reasons for calling for such a move to be implemented.

“The country is in an emergency and in a situation like this, everyone must surrender his/her liberty to the state and be combat-ready as a soldier in the battlefield,” the statement stated.

According to the Centre, the nation failed to use her proactive strategy which led to the current fear, panic and death caused by the presence of COVID-19

“ACSIS agrees that we should be concerned with our economy in considering a lockdown as we hear people talk about the difficulty regarding survival on the part of the most vulnerable in an unlikely event,” they explained

“Time is not on our side. The reality is that if we are unable to put drastic measures to stop the spread of COVID-19, now, we will end up finding ourselves in a situation where the country can't cope with the exponential spread of the disease and when we get to this level, the disease will eventually infect and kill us especially the poor or less privileged people we tried to protect,” ASIC stated.

“We of the ACSIS perfectly agree with them but contrarily suggest some drastic measures such as lockdown as the best strategy to deal with COVID-19 and defeat its purpose forthright”.

The body indicated that the people whose interests are being safeguarded hence the delay in the government’s decision to lockdown may be potential disease vectors.

“Those who would be infected most are the same people we are saying they don't have a place of convenience, food, money etc., and the same poor people in our society are those who will be spreading the disease most that would put all of us at risk.”

They added that whatever decision is made, “lockdown or not, people will be affected and some lives will be lost as well”.

However, they advised that the government does a critical analysis of the situation at hand and comes out with the best directive that will not lead to the loss of many lives.

“As the saying goes desperate time, calls for desperate measures. We must bite the bullet and take hard decisions now else we will all laugh at the wrong side of our mouths” they explained.

So far, the opposition in parliament, institutions like the Ghana Medical Association (GMA), Union of Professional Nurses and Midwives, Ghana (UPNMG), several opinion leaders and people on social media have called for an immediate lockdown of country.

Their concerns comes on the back on the increasing number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in the country.

As of Friday, March 27, 2020, there were 136 confirmed cases, 3 deaths and 1 recovered case.