Ghana’s president, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo on Sunday evening, April 19, lifted the ban on the restriction of movement/ lockdown measures in parts of the country even as confirmed cases continue to move up.
Until the president’s announcement, the ban had been in force for three weeks, allowing people only movement to access essential services such as grocery shopping and medical care.
“I have taken the decision to lift the three (3) week old restriction on movements in the Greater Accra Metropolitan Area and Kasoa, and the Greater Kumasi Metropolitan Area and its contiguous districts, with effect from 1am on Monday, 20th April. In effect, tomorrow will see the partial lockdown in Accra and Kumasi being lifted,” Nana Addo Addo Dankwa said during his seventh address to the nation since the country recorded its fist two cases on March 11.
According to the president, all other restrictions including ban on social gatherings which were announced before the restriction on movement are still in force.
“I must make it clear, at the outset, that lifting these restrictions does not mean we are letting our guard down. All other measures are still firmly in place. For the avoidance of doubt, the earlier measures announced on Wednesday, 15th March, which have been extended, are still very much in force, and have not been relaxed. I am demanding even greater adherence to these measures,” he added.
Ghana has recorded 1,042 positive cases with nine deaths and 99 recoveries. These figures are out eighty-six thousand (86000) contactstraced.
The Coronavirus pandemic which has been described by several world leaders as an attack on humanity is not only crashing economies and distorting educational and socail systems, it is also taking away several precious lives. At 20:00GMT on April 19, John Hopkins University reports that COVID-19 has killed more than 165000 people with more than 2,300,000 confirmed cases.