President Akufo-Addo has imposed restrictions on some cities in the country forming part of measures to curb the spread of the deadly coronavirus.
The cities affected include Accra, Kasoa, Tema and Kumasi – President Akufo- Addo said in the fourth address to the nation.
Delivering his fourth national televised address on the state’s anti-coronavirus strategy on Friday evening, President Nana Akufo-Addo said beginning from 1:00 a.m. on Monday, March 30, the lockdown will restrict the movement people for a period of two weeks subject to review.
The lockdown, he explained is to enable contact tracing of persons who have come into contact with persons who have tested positive for the deadly virus.
Since the start of the week, there have been numerous calls on Nana Akufo-Addo to declare a lockdown like many countries have done to mitigate the growing spread of the deadly disease.
As of Friday, March 27, 2020, Ghana has recorded 137 confirmed cases.
A lockdown is typically an emergency protocol that a state uses to prevent people from leaving a particular area.
The President directed during Friday’s address that people in the affected areas can only go out to get essential times such as food, conduct banking transactions or use the public toilet.
Here are the latest updates from the Ghana Health Service about the coronavirus situation in the country:
- As at the evening of March 27, 2020, 59 COVID-19 cases including four deaths have been confirmed from the regular surveillance systems.
- All four deaths had underlying chronic medical conditions. Two have recovered and have been discharged.
- The remaining 53 cases are doing well: 14 are being managed at home. The rest are on admission and responding well to treatment. Greater proportion of those on treatment with mild symptoms and are awaiting repeat of their laboratory tests to inform a decision to discharge them.
- Majority of the confirmed cases are Ghanaians, who returned home from other affected countries. Seven are of other nationals namely: Norway, Lebanon, China, Netherlands, and United Kingdom. Seventy-eight (78) among the travellers (1,030 in number), who were mandatory quarantined and tested, have tested positive for COVID-19.
- Regarding contact tracing, a total of 1,006 contacts have been identified and are being tracked. Out of these, 204 have completed the 14 days mandatory follow up.