The Ghana Medical Association (GMA) has pleaded with President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo not to lift the ban on social gatherings for religious activities, schools, marriage ceremonies, funerals and other social events.
According to the GMA, it also wants a continued closure of Ghana’s borders to prevent the importation of new COVID-19 cases from other jurisdictions.
The GMA believes that this will help in the collective fight of the novel coronavirus in the country.
A number of heads of the Christian Ecumenical Bodies have been expressing their preparedness to resume church activities. They have presented a proposal to the government to clearly spell out modalities under which they can safely perform their programmes without endangering the lives of congregants.
According to the said proposal , the churches are advocating strict adherence to all the precautionary measures prescribed against the fight of the Coronavirus, which includes separating seating areas for the aged.
It is not certain as to why these leaders would want to put the health of their various congregations at risk.
However, officials of the Ghana Medical Associations (GMA) in their latest communiqué stated that the Coronavirus pandemic is real and is still a major health threat to all persons living in the country.
The GMA , in a statement on Saturday, May 9, 2020, noted that there have been a “seeming disregard for all the preventive measures put in place by large sections of the population” and added that the number of new COVID-19 positive cases in the country are mostly from community spread.
However, they urged that “Government must ensure prompt and continuous distribution of PPEs to all health workers at their various institutions (or place of work) at all times. This will guarantee the safety of all health workers as they continue to render care to patients.”
On May 9, 2020, Ghana recorded 251 positive cases which brought the number of total confirmed cases of Coronavirus to 4,263 with 378 recoveries and 22 deaths.
A statement on the Ghana Health Service website revealed that: “The cumulative number of COVID-19 cases recorded in Ghana since the 12th of March 2020 is 4,263. There have been 378 recoveries and 22 deaths. Between the 7th and 8th May, a total of 251 new cases have been reported with the majority of them from the Greater Accra Region (205 cases representing 82%).”
Still leading, the Greater Accra Region has 3,641 cases, whilst the Ashanti Region follows in second place with 252 cases.
On 12 March, Ghana first reported two COVID-19 cases. at that time, some countries had been under partial or total lockdown for at least four weeks.
The streets and markets are crowded with people making nonsense of the existing social distancing protocols and ban of social gatherings announced by the president.
Schools, religious places, hotels and many non-essential places of work remain closed.
