A Senior Research Fellow at the Kumasi Centre for Collaborative Research (KCCR) has called on government to activate the Imposition of Restrictions Act, 2020 to effectively deal with the spike in coronavirus cases in the country.
Dr John Amuasi in an interview on Joy FM’s Top Story Monday stressed that the country will continue to witness an increase in active Covid-19 cases until decisive measures are implemented.
According to him, recent events where Ghana has recorded cases of the new variant should wake Ghanaians up to the looming dangers of the virus.
“I keep hearing ‘If we do not see the numbers going down…’ The thing is, the numbers will not go down until we take decisive measures. But from where I sit, I think that the Ghana Health Service and the Ministry of Health are taking these measures.
“They may be planning it and thinking of how best to roll them out because they cannot just come one day and just announce a lockdown. So I will take these as a herald or a preannouncement but it (a lockdown) is going to happen sooner than later,” Dr Amuasi said.
His comment comes after the Ghana Health Service (GHS) confirmed that the Covid-19 virus has now spread to all 16 regions of the country, with Greater Accra, Ashanti and Western Regions as the biggest hotspots.
In the latest update, the Service indicated that many as 695 were recorded on the January 21, increasing the active cases from 3,286 to 3,525 and total case count of 61, 498.
This has raised concern amongst many Ghanaians as some scientists and experts call on government to impose restriction in some parts of the country to contain the disease.
Commenting on how the imposition of restrictions should be executed, the KCCR Research fellow said it will be unrealistic for a full-blown national lockdown to be implemented, it will have an impact on Ghana’s economy.
He, therefore, suggested that with “major cities, like Accra, Kumasi and perhaps Takoradi a complete lockdown which will restrict the movement of people and allow people to stay at home except the essential service providers.
“But for the rest of the towns, a more circumspect type of lockdown which will prevent people from moving out of the district or regions. So major roads out of the districts or region should be manned. This will help completely erode the infections in regions and towns with fewer infections.”