Coronavirus: Something is not going right – Prosper Bani

The Chairman of the opposition NDC’s COVID-19 Response Team, Prosper Douglas Kweku Bani, says the recent surge in confirmed Coronavirus cases in Ghana, is a clear indication that all is not well as far as management of the pandemic in the country is concerned.

Though he believes the government is doing its best through already established measures to curb further spread of the virus, he reckons that there is still a lot that is wrong, and that needs to be fixed before things go sour.

“As we speak, from March to today, you could see the rate of increase of the numbers as we go along. Something is not going right and the message that is coming from leadership is that there is full control on the cases in Ghana. This I think is not entirely correct and there are several concerns about the way the numbers are being channelled to the population.” He said, whilst taking his turn on Joynews’ Newsfile show Saturday.

Mr. Bani says the situation is not being treated with a war-like approach, though leadership has finally admitted this is a war-like situation; the fast increase from 2 cases on the 12th of March to over 4,000 cases currently for him, is more than enough proof.

“A war-like situation requires a war-like approach. The pandemic, if you consider it like an enemy force, you need to design a plan, identify frontline workers, etc. as we speak today, if you ask where is the plan, the strategy for executing this fight against COVID-19, we are yet to see the document.” He said.

Adding that, developing a plan to solve the problem is the most rational thing to do at this point, especially considering the numbers are only increasing and factors like leadership, communication, trust, and adherence are still lacking.

“There cannot be any strategic, tactical approach to address this if we do not have a plan.



We also need to have a clear structure of the crisis management team, we need to know who is in charge so that when we hear the voice early in the morning or in the evening, we know we are getting the correct figures, analysis, the correct impact on the economy, social life, and how it is affecting our cultural settings. We need to know our response approach. These are not normal times and therefore we cannot have normal responses. Any approach in addressing the economy cannot be addressed as though we are in normal times.” He said.

Meanwhile, Ghana, as at Friday, May 8, had recorded 4012 confirmed cases of the Coronavirus, with Accra being the highest affected, having recorded some 3,436 cases of the virus. 323 recoveries have been recorded with death tolls still at 18.