Today in History: Coronavirus destroying our business - Sex workers

Amid the Coronavirus pandemic in 2020, some commercial sex workers in Accra stated that their business had been badly hit by the Coronavirus pandemic.

The commercial sex workers complained about the low patronage of their services as their customers were afraid of contracting the novel virus.

“Business is not booming as it used to be, our customers are no more patronizing our services because of the outbreak of Coronavirus. The Chinese people have cost us a lot with this disease. This is a job that we’ve been doing over the years to cater for our families, but now if the men are passing and we call them some verbally attack us. Now, the married men don’t stay long in town, they are in a rush to go home to their wives.”

Read the full story originally published on March, 31, 2020, on Ghanaweb

Some commercial sex workers say their business has been hard hit following the outbreak of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) in Ghana.

The ladies of the night have lamented the low patronage of their services saying their regular customers from whom they used to make lots of money no more patronize them for fear of contracting the deadly disease.

Ghana has so far recorded 152 cases of Coronavirus (COVID 19) putting fear into a large section of the public.

Speaking to Kasapa FM's Bonohene Baffuor Awuah on condition of anonymity, a commercial sex worker stated that the turn of events is making life difficult for them as they are no more making money.

She said although they’ve made sanitizers and wipes available for their customers to clean themselves after sex, they still don’t patronize their services.

“Business is not booming as it used to be, our customers are no more patronizing our services because of the outbreak of Coronavirus. The Chinese people have cost us a lot with this disease. This is a job that we’ve been doing over the years to cater for our families, but now if the men are passing and we call them some verbally attack us. Now, the married men don’t stay long in town, they are in a rush to go home to their wives.”

She added: “Even though we tell them we have wipes that they can use to clean themselves after having sex, they still refuse to patronize our services. We’ve almost run out of business. But the President said only services at churches and mosques should be suspended, I didn’t hear him saying prostitutes should stop work. We are still working so the men should patronize us so that we can get some money to fend for ourselves and family.”

President Akufo-Addo last Friday announced a partial lockdown in Accra, Kumasi, Tema and Kasoa in a bid to prevent a spread of the coronavirus disease.

Essential services providers and some other categories of professionals are however allowed to carry out their duties.