Lockdown in Ghana could have been done differently – KNUST lecturer

Political Scientist at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Dr. Kwasi Amakye Boateng has attacked the President’s decision to impose restrictions on movement of persons in some parts of Ghana as way of containing the deadly coronavirus outbreak killing thousands across the globe.

“Look at Italy and UK and even the United States … they took pragmatic steps before the outbreak and I do not think we should be doing what we are doing now”, he spoke on Kumasi-based Angle FM morning show monitored MyNewsGh.com.

According to the social commentator, government’s decision to close down Ghana’s borders is a misplaced step which should have been done somewhere in February this year to avoid the locals from being infected.

“If you do a careful analysis, you will know that three percent of countries affected did not do what Ghana has done. Our borders should have been closed earlier as much as February”, Dr. Amakye Boateng told host, Kwame Tanko during panel discussion following a partial lockdown of some cities .

The Health Minister, Mr Kwaku Agyeman-Manu on Wednesday announced that the deadly coronavirus in Ghana have shot up to 195 as of Wednesday morning with the Eastern Region recording its first case.

The Minister who made this known at a press briefing at the Ministry of information said “as of now, the death toll as a result of COVID-19 still stands at 5 whiles patients have been discharged and are ongoing home care”

Breaking down the cases into regions he said the Greater Accra Region has 174 of these cases, the Northern Region has 10, the Ashanti Region has nine, the Upper West Region has one and the Eastern Region also has one known case of the virus.