President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has been called upon to resume his weekly address to the nation on the COVID-19 pandemic.
The weekly address has become imperative in view of the recent escalation in the infection rate, which has seen the number of cases jump exponentially in just over two weeks.
Ranking Member of the Health Committee of Parliament, Mr. Kwabena Mintah Akando who made the appeal on Tuesday indicated the need for government to inform Ghanaians of the fresh measures it is taking to halt the spread.
Speaking to journalist in Parliament, the Juaboso MP described as unfortunate the new cases of Covid-19 being recorded and government’s apparent state of confusion on what to do.
He said, “Between 4th July and 12th July, the rate of increment has moved to about 82%; from 250 to about 455 daily confirmed cases.”
“If you look at the data within the period, on 4th July it was around 1,573 and jumped significantly to 2,247 confirmed cases as at 12th July, 2021. This is quite alarming.”
The Ranking noted that the only effective way to bring down the rate of infection of the virus is to conduct mass vaccination.
Government, he said, had one whole year to prepare, procure and deploy the vaccination with plans to deploy not less than 7.9 million doses of vaccines.
He lamented that to date, the government has been able to vaccinate just about a million people, which is very inadequate considering the new infection rate.
According to him, more worrying is government’s lack of commitment to deploy full-scale vaccination and the deadly silence on testing.
“As the ranking member on the Parliamentary Select Committee on Health, if you ask me when we are going to roll out the vaccination plan, the answer is I don’t know.”
“And worst of it is that the government has stopped testing completely so if a person is suspected of being infected, he would have to test all close relatives at a cost of not less than GH¢300 per person because there is no more government testing,” he said.
He argued that the lack of preparedness on the part of government has brought the country to this stage and therefore the state cannot turn around to tell the populace of an emergency situation.
He urged the public to take their destinies into their own hands and renew their observation of the COVID protocols because what the country is experiencing could well be the third wave.
“Let us, therefore, take the COVID protocols seriously and adhere to them because there is no serious plan in place for now. We have consistently been drawing the government’s attention that we must conduct testing and vaccination but to no avail,” he added
Mr. Akandoh warned that the new variant of the virus is like wildfire and urged the public to be guided to ensure their safety.
