Don’t Copy Others, Develop Your Own Response To COVID-19 Fight – Akufo-Addo Tells ECOWAS leaders

President Akufo-Addo has asked ECOWAS leaders to adopt a specific strategy in dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic.

Interacting with West African Heads of States at the virtual ECOWAS Extraordinary Summit on the Coronavirus pandemic via Zoom, the President asked his colleagues to desist from copying strategies devised by other countries to contain the virus.

“I think it's very, very important that we tailor a specific Ghanaian, African response to the handling of this pandemic, and not necessarily copy blindly the methods that are being adopted by countries to the north of us and elsewhere.”

The President during the interaction also gave an outline of Ghana’s response programme to the Coronavirus pandemic which is based on four principles, including the mobilization of the social forces of the country, among others to deal with the threat of the pandemic.

He also mentioned that there has been an aggressive process of tracing and testing, with over 85,000 Ghanaians being tested for the virus.

“So far, over 85,000 Ghanaians have been tested. We are looking to test as much as 100,000. This has enabled us to get a hang of the geographic footprint of the virus, of identifying the epicentres of our country, and also better understanding the dynamics of the virus, while we are treating and isolating infected cases.”

In trying to stop community spread, President Nana Akufo-Addo indicated that some protocols including the wearing of face masks had been introduced.

“We are encouraging the hygiene protocols – the washing of hands, the social distancing and also wearing face masks. Happily for us, under the present circumstances, our infection rate continues to be 1.5% of the screened population, and it has remained at this figure for some time. We are encouraged that, hopefully, we will see to its reduction.”

To limit the impact of the virus on the economic and social life of Ghanaians, the President indicated that specific measures had been taken to provide relief for all Ghanaians, stressing that “we have relief programs to provide free water, subsidize electricity in order to deal with the impact on especially vulnerable segments of our society.”

The onset of the pandemic, President Akufo-Addo said, “has also given us an opportunity to scale up domestic production for medical material, protective equipment as well as medicines, sanitizers and the rest. We believe that with their sufficient support and inspiration from government, domestic manufacturers and local enterprises are capable of rising to the challenge to find us the opportunity to meet our needs from Ghana.”

COVID-19 cases in Ghana currently stand at 1,154 with the Greater Accra Region alone recording over 900.

As part of measures to prevent a spread of COVID-19, government the wearing of face masks in public places has been made mandatory within the Greater Accra Region.

---citinewsroom