With the increase in the coronavirus cases, some concerned Ghanaians are contemplating a total lock down while others say it will be a killer decision especially for those in the cities but living in peri-urban areas where access to critical essential facilities are non-existent.
GBC’s George Ankrah sought the views of an Epidemiologist, Professor Fred Binka, who says lot of factors will have to be considered before a total lockdown.
He however insists that other experts from the Ministry of Social Welfare and government should be deployed along with Police enforcement to ensure essentials are allowed into market centers.
In his opinion on a possible total lockdown, General Secretary of the Industrial and Commercial Workers Union, ICU Solomon Kotei suggested that government should rather step up education and maintain the partial lockdown otherwise a total lockdown will impose hunger and death on the wage earner instead of the virus.
Mr. Kotei also touched on the need for employers to support staff asked to go home due to the pandemic.
Northern Ghana is an agrarian area, and therefore some scientists and farmers are against a total lockdown. According to Professor Roger Kanton, a total lockdown in a farming community would not be in the interest of food security. For him a total lockdown is not a panacea to control the spread of the disease.
Government extended the lockdown imposed on Greater Accra and Greater Kumasi by one more week from Monday, April 13, 2020.
In his sixth televised address to the nation, the President said, although the efforts have been successful, the country was not yet out of the woods.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8J4DBdeWkP8&lc=UgxlmiPRhuVgNQMLiVF4AaABAg
