President Akufo-Addo says the increase in a number of people testing positive for the new coronavirus is not a failure of government’s efforts to contain the pandemic.

He said, on the contrary, the numbers are going up due to accelerated efforts by government to test more people and the contacts of those that test positive.

Without these enhanced efforts, Akufo-Addo says the numbers -- which stand at 4,700 as of Sunday evening, would only have been at 1,413 -- more than 3,200 less.

He said these people would have been in the population and unknowingly infecting more people, save for government’s efforts.

Speaking in his ninth televised address on government’s efforts to contain the outbreak, Akufo-Addo urged Ghanaians not to begrudge political actors who link the increase in numbers to government’s failure.

“They need to make such comments for their political survival,” Akufo-Addo said.

Lifting lockdown a terrible gamble

On Thursday, the Minority in Parliament cited lifting of the lockdown in Accra and other hotspots in the country as a causal factor to the spike in cases.

Addressing journalists outside the chamber, leader of the NDC MPs, Haruna Iddrisu described the decision as “a terrible gamble.”

The president should not have taken that decision, the Tamale South MP said.

He added that the Minority is deeply worried by the ascent of confirmed cases in the country “and the attempt to relegate that to the background.”

But responding to these claims, Akufo-Addo said his administration is handling the matter so well that the “World Health Organisation has reached out to us to share our sample pooling experience with other African countries.”

He said the rather “early identification of persons with the virus ensures that they do not spread the virus to others.

“We are provided with the opportunity to treat them; and it helps us to understand better the dynamics of the virus,” he said.