Let us create country-specific COVID-19 measures and not copy blindly – Prez. Akufo-Addo to ECOWAS
President Nana Akufo-Addo has underscored the need for the African States to use home-grown solutions to fight the coronavirus pandemic. He told his fellow ECOWAS leaders this is better so the Community does “not necessarily copy blindly the methods that are being adopted by countries to the north of us and elsewhere.” President Akufo-Addo said…
President Nana Akufo-Addo has underscored the need for the African States to use home-grown solutions to fight the coronavirus pandemic.
He told his fellow ECOWAS leaders this is better so the Community does “not necessarily copy blindly the methods that are being adopted by countries to the north of us and elsewhere.”
President Akufo-Addo said this on Thursday when he joined colleague West African Heads of State for a virtual ECOWAS Extraordinary Summit on the Coronavirus pandemic.
“Secondly, we are led and informed by science and our data that we can assemble. We are also learning from the experience of governments of countries that are further down the road in responding to the pandemic. Then, finally, we think that it is an opportunity for us to continue to push with our Ghana Beyond Aid agenda,” he added.
“So far, over 85,000 Ghanaians have been tested. We are looking to test as much as 100,000. This has enabled us to get a hang of the geographic footprint of the virus, of identifying the epicenters of our country, and also better understanding the dynamics of the virus, while we are treating and isolating infected cases,” he added.
“We are encouraging the hygiene protocols – the washing of hands, the social distancing and also wearing face masks. Happily for us, under the present circumstances, our infection rate continues to be 1.5% of the screened population, and it has remained at this figure for some time. We are encouraged that, hopefully, we will see to its reduction,” he added.
The onset of the pandemic, President Akufo-Addo said, “has also allowed us to scale up domestic production for medical material, protective equipment as well as medicines, sanitizers and the rest. We believe that with their sufficient support and inspiration from government, domestic manufacturers, and local enterprises are capable of rising to the challenge to find us the opportunity to meet our needs from Ghana.”
In conclusion, President Akufo-Addo told his colleagues that “we are in new territories, these are extraordinary times, and it requires a unique level of solidarity amongst ourselves to be able to find lasting solutions.”
