A report by the Ghana Health Service that the Coronavirus (Covid-19) cases in Ghana have now hit 1,671 should be a wakeup call for every Ghanaian to understand that the disease is dangerous and could wreak havoc on our dear nation if we underestimate it. This is how it started in Italy, Spain, France, England, Germany, and USA before killing the people in their thousands and still counting.
Available statistics indicate that the disease has killed 27,359 in Italy, 58,964 in the USA, 24,275 in Spain, 23,660 in France, 21,678 in UK and 6,314 in Germany. Worldwide, 3.12 million people have contracted the disease, out of which only 933,000 have recovered.
As the Akan adage goes, when your friend’s beard catches fire, you had better fetch water and put it beside yours – because you do not know when yours will also catch fire. From under 10 cases to the current 1,671 should be enough warning to the entire nation that we have also descended into the same trajectory the above nations treaded.
President Akufo-Addo saw the danger ahead of the nation, hence, decided to lockdown the Accra, Kasoa and Kumasi metropolises, which are the epic centres for the disease in the country.
Unfortunately, the harsh economic situation forced the President to relax the lockdown.
The Chronicle cannot blame the President for lifting the ban on movement, because most Ghanaians live on a hand-to-mouth sort of life, and to force them to stay at one place for a long time has its own consequences. But, it appears to us that after being granted the freedom to move around, Ghanaians have taken the disease for granted and are rather doing things that would worsen the situation.
In our tro tros and market places, people are refusing to wear the face masks to stop the disease from spreading. To make matters worse, some unscrupulous people are also aiding Covid-19 suspects to escape from confinement facilities, and harbouring them in their homes. These people, obviously, do not appreciate the enourmity of the situation because of either ignorance or simply refusing to accept the reality.
Our health facilities cannot simply cope with mass infections of the disease in the country. Even in Europe and the US, which have all got the resources, they are struggling to cope with the avalanche of cases that are being reported daily, and the concomitant deaths. Dead bodies are being loaded into trucks and tipped into mass graves because it is impossible to dig a grave for each dead person.
Do we want to experience this in our country, the answer is obviously a big no! To us at The Chronicle, this is the reason why every Ghanaian must protect himself or herself against the disease. Though the government has so far done its best to contain the situation, there is still room for improvement.
Now that the lockdown is over and people are criss-crossing and spreading the disease to the rural areas, we suggest that the government invest in the procurement of nose masks and distribute them to the various district assemblies for onward free distribution to the people.
We are making this suggestion, because in the rural areas, even one Ghana cedi is not easy to come by. Educating the people to, therefore, wear face masks will be an exercise in futility because they definitely do not have the resources to buy these face masks.
If combating the disease in our big towns and cities is becoming a herculean task, then one can imagine what will happen should it take deep roots in these rural areas. What is going on in the world today is very scary, and we had better watch as a nation before we are overtaken by events.
The post Editorial: 1,671 Covid-19 cases in Ghana is very scary; Ghanaians must wake up! appeared first on The Chronicle Online.
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