COVID-19 Is Here To Stay; We Must Learn To Live With It

Health Minister, Kwaku Agyemang-Manu, is urging Ghanaians to strictly adhere to public health advisories since the novel coronavirus “will be here for a while.”

“The last time I came here, I made some very good factual statements that the coronavirus has come to live with us and we have to live with it,” he said at a press briefing on Thursday morning.

“We should begin to accept the fact that the disease will be here for a while but we should try to reduce the rate at which we are spreading and getting affected… What we have to do now is to live with it and manage ourselves against it,” Mr. Agyemang-Manu remarked.

“There are several diseases we have to live with. Malaria has been with us. HIV/AIDS came and we have never been able to shake it off and we still live with it. H1N1 is still around. We still live with it. There are several other diseases we still live with.”

The Minister reiterated his urge to Ghanaians to wear face masks as a means of flattening the curve of positive COVID-19 cases.

“We will have to find a way to ensure the numbers don’t go up but begin to come down. So if we are adhering strictly to the guidelines and education… we won’t be seeing those hikes we are seeing parts of the country.”

He further noted that “very soon, we will see the police arresting some of us” for not wearing a mask in public.

This is in a bid to ensure Ghana society returns to a setting resembling normal.

“We cannot stop economic activity in the country, our social life, our children’s education so we need to do something that will enable us to live our normal life,” Mr. Agyemang-Manu.

Currently the wearing of face masks in public spaces in addition to a ban on public gatherings.

Ghana's novel coronavirus cases have risen to 5,530 with 674 recoveries and 24 deaths.