Lockdown lifted: There should've been mass testing instead – Dr Akanbong

Dr. Prosper Akanbong, Member of the National Democratic Congress' (NDC) COVID-19 Technical Team, says the decision by the President to lift the partial lockdown was not a prudent one.

According to him, there should have been a mass testing exercise instead of the lockdown being lifted to indicate a truer reflection and get a grip of the novel Coronavirus.

Speaking in an interview on the Citi Breakfast Show on Monday, April 20, Dr. Akanbong said; “Lifting the lockdown now is not particularly a good decision. Our cases are going up and we haven't really traced secondary and tertiary contacts.”

“There should have been mass testing instead of the lockdown being lifted. That way a truer reflection of the current situation would have been provided,” he adds.

Akanbong adds since the Eastern Region and Upper West Region have seen spikes in their cases, he would have expected a restriction on movement in these regions by the President.

“If you see the criteria for the World Health Organisations (WHO) on lifting sanctions on the restrictions of movement, if you take the six main criteria’s, we’ve missed out on a lot of those. On public education, people must know exactly what this virus is all about and if you see the recent videos on social media over how people are reacting to the ban being lifted tells us the education has not even gone down well,” he lamented.

President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo on Sunday, April 19 announced the lifting of the 3-week lockdown in Greater Accra and Kumasi, with effect from Monday, April 20.

In a national broadcast, the president, however, stated all other social distancing measures are still in place. Churches, schools both public and private, will still remain shut.