President Nana Akufo-Addo of Ghana has announced the suspension of a three-week restriction on movement in parts of the country to curb the spread of the coronavirus.
Mr Akufo-Addo, in a televised address on Sunday, said the decision was made based on progress in containing the spread of the disease and the impact of the lockdown on the poor and vulnerable.
“Fellow Ghanaians, 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 equipment, 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 (3) 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 1 am on Monday, 20th April. In effect, tomorrow will see the partial lockdown in Accra and Kumasi being lifted,” he said.
Ghana had since March 31 placed four major cities in the Greater Accra, Ashanti and Central regions under lockdown, following confirmation of 137 cases.
Akufo-Addo, however, said the ban on mass gatherings and the closure of Ghana’s borders to human traffic remain in force.
As of Sunday, Ghana had a total of 1,043 confirmed COVID-19 cases.
The majority of cases are in Accra (882) and Kumasi (62). Ninety-nine of them have recovered and have been discharged while nine have died.
