Information Minister, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah has asked individuals and groups who are distributing relief items to the vulnerable as part of the country’s COVID-19 fight to observe social distancing protocol to curtail the spread of the virus.
According to him, the government’s effort to contain the disease will come to not if people continue to disregard the protocol in the distribution exercises.
In a post on social media, Mr. Oppong Nkrumah said: “We encourage all who are involved in distributing relief packs to the vulnerable to ensure social distancing is observed. Else your efforts will be counterproductive.”
“We encourage all persons to comply with the measures and spread more knowledge and facts to help all of us”, the tweet added.
Various distribution exercises in the country have been criticized due to the non-compliance of the social distancing directive as one of the measures towards fighting COVID-19.
Currently, Ghana has recorded 566 cases of COVID-19 with eight deaths and four recoveries.
In a related development, some markets have already been shut down temporarily because both traders and vendors have breached the social distancing protocol and other enhanced hygiene measures amidst COVID-19 fears.
In extreme cases, military and police officers have been dispatched to these markets to ensure some level of adherence.
GMA warns against disregard for social distancing
The Ghana Medical Association (GMA) has warned of more danger should Ghanaians fail to observe the social distance protocol despite the lockdown order in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic.
GMA 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 Yankson has thus 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.”
Source: Cititnewsroom.com
