Avoid false sense of security, coronavirus not under control in Ghana – NDC team

The NDC technical team on COVID-19 has urged Ghanaians to avoid a false sense of security following the decision by President Akufo-Addo to lift the coronavirus lockdown on Accra and Kumasi.

According to the team, the virus is not under control in the country and therefore removing restrictions is dangerous.

“If government has data outside what has been presented publicly that has informed this decision, we request public disclosure in order that we can continue to support a non-partisan push to win the day.

“Until that information is available, we encourage Ghanaians to avoid a false sense of security and continue to stay at home as much as possible, avoid non-essential movement and respect all health protocols outlined from the onset. We remain committed as technical experts to our primary goal to share information that protects the right of every Ghanaian to prepare, fight and defeat this virus,” the team said in a statement.

The statement also warned the situation could get out of hands with the lifting of the restrictions.

“Members of this Technical Team are acutely aware of the vulnerability of the economic circumstances of a vast majority of Ghanaians who have struggled with daily food supplies in this period. Indeed, many team members have been directly involved in daily interventions where government interventions have unfortunately been woefully lacking."

"We are confident that the options we proposed in our community impact mitigation strategies should apply in favour of protecting the lives of all Ghanaians from further risk of infection and potential morbidity. In addition, every country that has been touched by this virus has suffered significant economic difficulty.

“The true test of the fiscal resilience for every country has been in the quality of the planning and preparation as well as the seriousness with which the pandemic has been managed. We propose that in Ghana, if we are to turn the tide, far more organized and strategic work is urgently required to cushion our citizens from the multiple negative economic implications of COVID-19. Our position is that the virus is not yet under adequate control in Ghana to merit any ease of restrictions on movement at this time."

"We are mindful of the fact that a backlog of tests from samples of about 10,000 took us from 600+ cases to 1000+ cases. With over 18,000+ samples yet to be tested, there is a higher probability that our cases may surge as we are yet to get to our peak. We believe these backlog samples are from primary or secondary contacts who have in turn made several contacts in the chain of human interactions and whose test results are yet to be ascertained."

"Looking at the return to activities defying the basic social distancing protocols as recommended, we put ourselves in a very precarious situation for a potential second wave of infections,” the statement added.