President Akufo-Addo has announced the suspension of the partial lockdown imposed on Greater Accra and Kumasi Metropolitan areas from Monday (April 20, 2020).

This is coming at a time when the number of COVID-19 cases in the country is rising.

But the President in his 7th address on covid-19, said that even though Ghana has recorded 1,042 cases with 9 deaths the lockdown has been lifted.

He said the increase in cases is due to the enhanced contact tracing and testing efforts by the government.

Below are the reasons President Akufo-Addo gave for lifting the lockdown:

1. Ability to undertake aggressive contact tracing of infected persons

2. Enhancement of our capacity to test

3. Expansion in the numbers of our treatment and isolation centres

4. Our better understanding of the dynamism of the virus

5. Ramping up of our domestic capacity to produce our protective equipment sanitisers and medicines

6. Modest successes chalked at containing the spread of the virus in Accra and Kumasi

7. The severe impact on the poor and vulnerable

WHO conditions for suspending restrictions

Meanwhile, the World Health Organization (WHO) named six conditions for lifting COVID-19-related restrictions.

The conditions are:

1. Disease transmission is under control

2. Health systems can “detect, test, isolate and treat every case and trace every contact”

3. Hot spot risks are minimized in vulnerable places, such as nursing homes

4. Schools, workplaces and other essential places have established preventive measures

5. The risk of importing new cases “can be managed”

6. Communities are fully educated, engaged and empowered to live under a new normal.

President Akufo-Addo announced the initial partial lockdown on March 27, 2020, when Ghana’s total confirmed COVID-19 cases stood at 137 with four deaths.

At the time only 4 out of the 16 regions, had recorded cases of the disease.

President Akufo-Addo, while announcing the decision said the reason was to “contain and halt the spread of the virus within our country, especially in Accra, Tema, Kasoa, and Kumasi, which have been identified by the Ghana Health Service as the ‘hotspots’ of the infections.”