President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo of Ghana has lifted the lockdown imposed in some parts of the country.
Mr Akufo-Addo admitted that Ghana is at a critical stage in the fight against the novel coronavirus adding that the lockdown will not be extended.
The president made this known during his seventh address to the nation on the outbreak on Sunday.
Mr Akufo-Addo has come under fire over the lockdown as stakeholders believe it isn’t practicable in Ghana largely because the economy is too weak to cater for the vulnerable beyond three months.
The president may have just succumbed to this call.
His words: “In view of our ability to undertake aggressive contact tracing of infected persons, the enhancement of our capacity to test, the expansion in the numbers of our treatment and isolation centres, our better understanding of the dynamism of the virus, the ramping up of our domestic capacity to produce our own personal protective equipments, sanitisers and medicines, the modest successes chalked at containing the spread of the virus in Accra and Kumasi, and the severe impact on the poor and vulnerable, I have taken the decision to lift the three-week old restriction on movements in the Greater Accra Metropolitan Area and Kasoa, and the Greater Kumasi Metropolitan Area and its contiguous districts, with effect from 1am on Monday, 20th April.
“In effect, tomorrow will see the partial lockdown in Accra and Kumasi being lifted”.
All public gatherings, however, remain prohibited.
Ghana has 1,042 confirmed cases, one of Africa’s highest, trailing the likes of South Africa and Egypt.
