Coronavirus: Ghanaians will know if Akufo-Addo tests positive – Oppong Nkrumah

Minister of Information Kojo Oppong Nkrumah has said the government will not hesitate in informing Ghanaians should President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo test positive for COVID-19.

“If he is positive, we will tell you because the president has been at the forefront of asking people to speak up and help fight stigma. The president was the one who spoke on the Health Minister’s positivity and wished him well and if you follow his addresses, he has been speaking about the need to break the stigma,” the minister said on Joynews’ Beyond the Lockdown on Saturday night.

According to Oppong Nkrumah, it will be important to disclose the president’s status to help fight the issue of stigmatization that has cropped up amidst the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic.

He, however, emphasized that the president has not tested positive and is continuing with his 14-day self-isolation on the advice of his doctors after he came into contact with a person within his close circle who had tested positive of the virus.

“If the president was positive, we have to put it out as part of efforts in fighting the stigma associated with this. But he is not and that is why we have right from the beginning been proactive with the information that he had to go into isolation for about 14 days. That is why his office after today’s Zoom call, for example, has put out a video of him currently going about his business,” he added.

President Akufo-Addo per a release signed by the Minister of Information has since July 4, 2020, been in self-isolation at the Jubilee House after it was revealed that a member of his team had tested positive for the novel coronavirus.