President Nana Akufo-Addo of Ghana on Monday announced the end of three-week lockdown. The Accra streets were full of life on Monday and the city of Kumasi since the movement was banned in the two cities.
This makes Ghana the first country to lift their lockdown amid coronavirus pandemic. Some Ghanaians received the news with different reactions. Some took it as a relief as they will now go back to their normal lives and daily work while others felt fretting.
People’s Reaction after the three-week lockdown
Hawkers like Jemima Adwoa Anim was happy that she would continue with her hawking of wares while the cars and pedestrians return to the Accra’s central business district.
AFP news agency quoted Jemima saying,
“It is a huge reprieve. We have a listening government.” She continued “It was a war-like situation. We had no money, and we couldn’t step out to work to earn some cash. God bless our president.”
There was however a lot of criticism around the capital city for that decision of easing restrictions after the three-week lockdown. They see lifting the ban as a terrible decision as the cases might shoot to bigger numbers. They don’t understand why the president would lift the ban yet they have recorded over one thousand cases of COVID 19 already.
A shopkeeper by the name Rita Baido said the decision did not make her happy, but she had no other option. She will have to reopen her store and try to make some money in Mallam, which is an Accra suburb. She said that it was not that easy being indoors, but it was for the best in keeping safe.
Confirmed Cases
Ghana has 1042 coronavirus cases, and the total deaths are at nine from this novel pandemic. Over sixty-eight thousand samples have been tested out of the total population of approximately thirty million people.
President’s Notes
The lifting of restrictions by President Akufo happened in a live address on television on Sunday. He said that they decided due to
“Because of our ability to undertake aggressive contact tracing of infected people, the enhancement of our capacity to test, the expansion in the numbers of our treatment and isolation centers.”
He further said that the restriction of movement came with several challenges for all of the citizens. Especially the vulnerable and the poor.
The president concluded by encouraging people to wear a mask anytime they are going outside as a measure of containing the spread of this virus.
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