Respect Ghana’s coronavirus laws – Australia High Commissioner tells staff

Australia’s High Commissioner to Ghana, His Excellency Gregory Andrews, has asked his workers at the Commission to respect all the laws set out by Ghanaian authorities to deal with the Coronavirus outbreak in the oil-producing West African nation.

Mr Andrews said the laws must be respected not only when the workers step out of the Commission but also within the premises.

Speaking in an interview with Berla Mundi on the New Day on TV3 Tuesday September 22, he said, “The city that I was living in in Australia had no COVID-19 and so I felt like I was in a safe place.

“In Ghana, the president is always reminding everybody that wear a mask and at the High Commission I tell everybody that we have to respect Ghana’s laws not just when we step outside of the Commission but every day in the Commission. Wear your masks every day.”

Meanwhile, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has extended by three more months the Executive Instrument (E.I) making the wearing of face masks mandatory.

He signed the extension of the E.I on Monday, September 14. President Akufo-Addo announced in a televised broadcast on Sunday, September 20 that wearing of masks, properly, will now be in force till Monday, December 14.

“So until 14th December, 2020, the wearing of masks remains mandatory. The law enforcement agencies have been empowered to ensure that this directive is respected by all.”

President Akufo-Addo made the wearing of face masks mandatory in his 11th update to the nation. It was initially restricted to the Greater Accra, Ashanti, Central and Western regions.

“It is important for me to remind residents of the Greater Accra and Ashanti Regions, where a great majority of cases have been recorded, and in the Western and Central Regions, where we are seeing an increase in infectious cases, to continue to adhere strictly to the social distancing and in-house hygiene protocols announced,” President Akufo-Addo had warned on Sunday, June 14.

“With doctors and scientists telling us the virus is transmitted from human contact through talking, singing, coughing and sneezing, which results in sending droplets of the virus from one person to another, residents of these four regions and indeed all Ghanaians must remember that the wearing of masks is now mandatory.”

Since then, the president has delivered five updates and on Sunday, September 20 insisted that failure to wear the masks is an offence.

“So, I urge each and every one of us to wear our masks and do so correctly anytime we leave our homes. It is a new normal requirement in our daily existence until the virus disappears.”