Editorial: Declining case count of infections shouldn’t lead to complacency

President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo resumed official duties yesterday, after going on a mandatory 14-day isolation after being exposed to a COVID-19 positive patient. Ghanaians welcome him back to work, even though he performed some slight official duties during his isolation period.

We are also pleased to learn from the Minister of Information, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, that the President never tested positive for the virus, even though it was upon his doctors’ advise that he took that precautionary isolation leave after a presidential staffer tested positive for COVID-19.

Now that Ghanaians are informed that the President is hale and hearty and fit to continue his executive duties, we are all the more pleased that nothing serious or unpleasant happened to him. We also feel it was important that Kojo Oppong Nkrumah dispelled rumours that the President had been flown out of the country for treatment, since that rumour also made the rounds while he was in isolation.

All this is happening at a time when the Director General of the Ghana Health Service, Dr Patrick Kuma-Aboagye says the last few weeks had seen a decline in the number of confirmed COVID-19 positive cases and attributed the declining cases to the effective implementation of policies and strategies initiated by government.

In glossing over the declining cases in the country according to the GHS, we would like to repeat the admonition by the Information Minister that the general public should not to use the improving recovery numbers and the declining active case numbers as a reason to be reckless.

Rather, we should uphold the health protocols religiously until the country has totally gotten rid of the virus from the country’s ecosystem, and that is not likely any time soon. We say this with the view that countries around the world are re-imposing lockdowns and implementing new health restrictions at their borders in an effort to curb a resurgence of the coronavirus before it spins even further out of control.

Australia’s second-largest city, Melbourne were asked to comply with lockdown regulations or face tougher restrictions. After a surge in daily infections beginning last month, Israel moved last week to re-impose restrictions, closing events spaces, live show venues, bars and clubs.

Africa’s most developed country, South Africa is already showing signs of being overwhelmed by the pandemic. Government re-imposed a ban on alcohol sales with the aim being to slow the spread to free up more badly needed hospital beds.

All this goes to demonstrate that we are not exactly out of the woods even as countries gradually ease COVID-19 restrictions. Ghana should not let complacency set in.

 

Temporary glitch in local content in oil & gas industry

Ghana’s oil and gas industry has made steady progress in pushing for more local content in the sourcing of goods, services and labour. However, with the outbreak of COVID-19, the industry is set to face major setbacks due to disruption caused by the Coronavirus pandemic and the collapse in oil prices.

Due to the health crisis, most exploration and production firms have had to cancel contracts with local businesses. For instance, the pandemic coupled with current low oil prices, has resulted in the cancellation of about 98 contracts worth over US$389million awarded by Aker Energy, AGM, Eni and GOSCO, in what is seen as a blow to local content development in an industry heavily dependent on foreign expertise and raw materials.

The Petroleum Commission’s Chief Executive Officer, Egbert Faibille Junior has also corroborated this unfortunate situation by saying the impact of COVID-19 will have serious ramifications on local content development in the country.

In all, the sector’s regulator estimates that over 450 Ghanaian workers in Aker Energy, Tullow, Schlumberger, Halliburton, Baker Hughes will lose their jobs as a result of the pandemic.  Though it is unfortunate, we are compelled to swallow our pride since the virus currently is beyond our ability to contain it.

While the country is seeking ways to increase local participation in the country’s hydrocarbon sector, the outbreak of the pandemic has thrown a spanner in the works and reversed some to the marginal gains made.

Thankfully, there appears some hope in the horizon since clinical trials for a vaccine is certainly about to be concluded. Studies in the US and UK suggest several experimental vaccines produce a good immune response in volunteers without serious side-effects.

The race to create a coronavirus vaccine is certainly accelerating. There are now 23 coronavirus vaccines in clinical trials around the world. We therefore remain hopeful that very soon, a remedy to this deadly virus will be found and then the world can return to normalcy and go about their lives without worrying about a virus that has disrupted how we live and work.

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