COVID-19 Lockdown: Disregard For Social Distancing Dangerous – GMA Warns

The Ghana Medical Association (GMA) is warning of more danger should Ghanaians continue to fail the social distance protocol despite the lockdown order in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic.

Seven days into the lockdown, there are reports of some Ghanaians, market women and vendors failing to comply with social distancing directives.

The Ghana Medical Association which advocated for the lockdown now fears that the purpose of the lockdown will be defeated given the disregard for social distancing at the market centres and in communities.

General Secretary of the Association, Dr. Justice Yanksonon on Eyewitness News, therefore pleaded with Ghanaians to be mindful of their actions as a way of minimizing the spread as well fasten the process of returning to normal day to day activities.

“People seem to be abusing the only grant that the government gave us. You go to some of the markets and they are not respecting the social distancing as we are talking about. You go to some of the communities, and people are still sitting around in the neighbourhood. All these are recipes for disaster. We need to ensure that as much as possible we gain from this so we return to our economic activities. If we don’t comply and we do some of the things we are doing, then potentially we could be in this lockdown for a very long time. It is left with us as citizens to begin an introspection among ourselves by contributing our bit to prevent the spread of the virus.”

General Secretary of the Ghana Medical Association, Dr. Ishmael Yankson

The GMA had argued that despite the economic difficulties in the country, a lockdown of Ghana at this stage of the increased number of Coronavirus cases will curtail the spread of the disease.

It suggested a partial shutdown of the Greater Accra and Ashanti Regions [hotspots of the virus in Ghana] where only essential service providers will be allowed to operate in order not to bring the life of the average Ghanaian to a standstill.

---citinewsroom