President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo says Ghana enters the critical phase in the fight against COVID-19 pandemic in the coming week, as the country awaits the test results of some 15,384 persons who were reached through contact tracing.
He said the outcome of these tests would determine whether or not the duration of the two-week restriction on movement would be extended, “ and the implementation or otherwise of any more enhanced measures to deal with the virus.”
Addressing the nation on measures taken against the spread of the coronavirus, the President urged citizens to continue to cooperate with the preventive, security, tracing and testing, and the care and management protocols which were being implemented to “enable us to hasten the lifting of these restrictions, and returning the nation to normalcy.”
“Fellow Ghanaians, tonight, I stand before you to ask for your continued patience, support, vigilance and adherence to the measures. Let each one of us play his or her part to enhance our collective efforts at containing the spread of the virus,” he urged.
“I am fully aware of the disruptions to your lives occasioned by these measures. Your personal movements, way of life, the education of your children, your livelihoods have all been disturbed by this virus. But, believe me, the measures are necessary if we are to free ourselves permanently of this pestilence.
“So, fellow Ghanaians, I will continue, passionately, to appeal to you to observe prescribed social distancing and good personal hygiene to contain community spread. These enhanced hygiene protocols must become a part of our everyday lives. We must not abandon them,” he stated.
Emphatic that the law enforcement agencies are going to increase their enforcement of the stay-at-home directive, President Akufo-Addo stated thus, “Do not leave your homes other than for the essential, stipulated reasons.”
“The cynics question our capacity for the maintenance of discipline in this period, and in its aftermath; however, I am confident that we will prove them wrong. Ghanaians always rise up to the occasion, and we will do so again. United, we are going to win this battle.”
The Ghana Health Service is due to receive, in the coming week, the results 15,384 out of 19,276 persons who have been reached through contact tracing.
Available data indicates that the overwhelming majority of confirmed cases came from travellers or from people who have come into contact with travellers.
The President said he was “encouraged” by the appreciation of Government’s handling of the pandemic and the offer of support by the leadership of the major political parties and notable institutions including Parliament and other bodies in the country.
He commended all frontline actors, healthcare workers, the security service personnel for their continued sacrifice in the war against the pandemic. “You are the heroes and heroines of our generation, and Government will do all in its power to provide you with the relevant tools to do your work effectively.”
To the Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research, the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology’s Kumasi Centre for Collaborative Research, and the National Public Health Reference Laboratory of the Korle-bu Teaching Hospital, President Akufo-Addo thanked them for “the solid work they are doing for Mother Ghana.”
He applauded the individuals and institutions who had made donations into the COVID-19 National Trust Fund, which had been established to complement Government’s fight against the virus, and to assist in the welfare of the needy and the vulnerable.
The Fund has so far yielded GHS8.75 million.
GNA
