The only place in the country that can protect you and your family against the vicious coronavirus is your home. So please #StayHome.

Social distancing and staying home are the only protection we have against the rapid spread of the coronavirus.

With the number of coronavirus cases in Ghana rising to 287 within the last four weeks, there is the need to stop further spread of the disease and protect lives.

These are the two main reasons behind the President’s order for residents of Accra, Kumasi, Tema and Kasoa to stay home for two weeks under a partial lockdown.

President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has directed the police and military to ensure that residents of the affected cities duly comply with his directive.  

The lockdown has entered its eighth day yet there is no visible improvement in the situation – the numbers keep rising. The disease is rapidly spreading to the other regions of the country.

This development may be attributed to many factors chief among them is the failure of residents in the four affected cities to obey the lockdown order.

We don’t need another round of flowery speeches from the President to know how closer one can be to his our ancestors if he contracts the disease.

The responsibility to stay alive and stay safe does not rest on the shoulders of the government only - after all it is doing what it considers appropriate and expedient at the moment.

We all have a solemn duty to stay safe and stay alive during this period and we can do this by obeying lawful orders aimed at protecting us such as staying home for the next two weeks.

It beats me why some residents in the affected cities continue to go out despite the order when they don’t need to.  While some are motivated by mere curiosity, others do that out of sheer disrespect and contempt for the President’s directive.

But I don’t need to remind you that your continuous disregard for the President’s directive is jeopardising the lives of our health workers. The need for physicians and other health professionals remains critical with the passing of each day.

And from the day the first two coronavirus cases were announced in Ghana, health officials continue to put their lives on the front line to protect and save us. 

All that they need from us at this moment of global crisis is to remain indoors by staying home to avoid getting infected.

It is vital we stay home.

We all have varied opinions about the coronavirus but they don’t matter now. The coronavirus is affecting everyone – loved ones, families and friends. What we need to do is stay home.

Please do well to postpone everything that will require that you leave home and stay home. Don’t see this plea as an overreaction.

What Ghanaians need to know is that by staying home and distancing ourselves from others we enable health workers to better manage the few cases the country has recorded in a timely fashion for the health of our loved ones.

When we stay home, we protect the lives of our health workers from getting infected. Already, some doctors and nurses at Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital, LEKMA Hospital and Ridge Hospital have contracted the disease.

We can save others from being infected by staying at home and reporting to the hospital when we feel sick.

About Author

The author, A. Kwabena Brakopowers is a development communications practitioner, journalist, essayist and a novelist whose works focus on gender, migration, international relations and development. He could be reached at Brakomen@outlook.com