Coronavirus: Israel has closed schools, is Ghana better than them? - Nana Ofori Owusu quizzes

PPP bigwig, Nana Ofori Owusu has admonished President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo to close schools for final year students.

President Nana Akufo-Addo, in his 11th update on COVID-19, reiterated the reopening of schools for final year students.

He was also cocksure the preventive measures by his government will help consolidate the health of the students and their school authorities as well as non-teaching staff.

"Some argue that we are putting the lives of our students, teachers and non-teaching staff in danger by this re-opening, citing the examples of other countries, who have done so and recorded spikes in their infection case counts. I have stated, on several occasions, that there is no one-size-fits-all approach to the resolution of this pandemic. We have our own unique situation in the country, and we have always taken that it into account in dealing with this disease, much as we are prepared to learn from the examples of others," the President argued.

He added that to aid in the fight against the pandemic "a total of six hundred thousand (600,000) face masks have been distributed to the tertiary institutions. This is to enable every student, teaching and non-teaching staff to have three (3) reusable face masks. In addition to this, one thousand seven hundred (1,700) Veronica buckets, two hundred thousand (200,000) litres of hand sanitizer, three thousand, four hundred (3,400) litres of liquid soap, and nine hundred (900) thermometer guns have been distributed, with the transportation and delivery of these items being overseen by the special logistics team of the Government Committee, chaired by the sagacious, experienced politician, the Senior Minister, Hon. Yaw Osafo Maafo, that is supervising the re-opening of the schools''.

But Nana Ofori Owusu strongly believes it is a bad move to open the schools and has cautioned the President not to think his measures are infallible.

The Director of Operations of the PPP, who is also aspiring to be its National Chairman, alluded to world statistics on the COVID-19 pandemic and feared there may be a spike in the number of infections in the country when final year students return to their various campuses.

Citing countries which permitted their schools to resume only to close them again because they recorded higher numbers of infections among the students, he appealed to the President to reconsider his decision.

He asked President Akufo-Addo if Ghana is better than Israel, comparing the two country's technical know-how.

"The statistics of the world show us that when we open schools, the numbers of COVID-19 infections increase. It is there; it's staring us in the face . . . Israel is a highly knowledgeable society. I am quoting Israel because of the propensity for the average citizen in Israel to be conscious but Israel opened schools and Israel closed the schools. Are you saying that we're more conscious as a society than Israel? It can't be the case. The argument will not hold. Any attempt to make that argument is on a slippery slope because we learn from best practices of the world," he said on Peace FM's 'Kokrokoo'.