Get Ready for Partial Lockdown, President Akufo-Addo Tells Ghanaians

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The President of Ghana, Nana Akufo-Addo, has recently warned Ghanaians to get ready that he might impose partial lockdown as infection rates have skyrocketed and this include new strains of the virus not seen in the country before.

According to a Reuters report, Akufo-Addo said healthcare facilities are becoming so overwhelmed with the reports of the growing cases of the virus.

Active cases in Ghana climbed to 1,924 from about 900 since the 5th of January. He also confirmed that the new variant was present in the country, as cases were imported from people entering Ghana.

The President said, Our COVID-19 treatment centres have gone from having zero patients to now being full because of the upsurge in infections.

“Work is ongoing to determine the presence and extent of spread of the new variants in the general population”.

Ghana is not yet close to a peak seen during the first wave of infections in the middle of last year, but could quickly reach that level if cases keep rising at the current rate.

If they do, the president said he would impose another partial lockdown, despite worries about what that would do to one of West Africa’s largest economies.

Across Africa, a second coronavirus wave is infecting twice as many people per day than at the height of last year’s first wave and is yet to peak, according to the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention.

The rise has raised concerns across the continent where, unlike in Europe and the United States, cash-strapped governments have been unable to secure supply deals with vaccine manufacturers, putting the onus for now on containment.

Akufo-Addo said details about access to vaccines and a rollout plan would be announced “very soon”.

He said that some people arriving from abroad had tested positive for “new variants” of the virus, without giving details.

Last week, Gambia recorded its first two cases of the highly infectious coronavirus variant first found in Britain, in what appears to be the first confirmation of its presence in Africa.

According to Nigeria Centre for Disease control, Nigeria also recorded its highest figure of 1,867, a record likely to be broken soon going by the way the virus is spreading.

“Work is ongoing to determine the presence and extent of spread of the new variants in the general population,” Akufo-Addo said.