A lecturer at the University of Ghana, Professor Yaw Gyampo has commended the government for the mandatory quarantine policy it has instituted in the outbreak of COVID-19 in the country.

Ghana has so far recorded 68 cases of COVID-19 with two deaths.

Government as part of measures to prevent further spread of the virus has put a ban on all public gatherings.

Also, the government has given a directive that all persons who arrive in the country have to go through mandatory quarantine.

Reacting to the mandatory quarantine in a Facebook post on Wednesday, 25 March 2020, Prof Gyampo noted that the policy is “yielding results which may not be appreciated by those who, fortunately, may not be infected” by the deadly virus.

“Just imagining what would have happened if all who were mandatorily quarantined were allowed to go to their houses and live in the communities without the policy to isolate them for observation and testing.”

According to Professor Gyampo, “Government deserves commendation for this policy. We have done better than the Italians and it is important we learn to praise and commend policymakers when they get it right.”

He also reminded the government not to waste the peoples' "taxes quarantining foreign travellers to Ghana in plush hotels” but “either let them stay away, enforcing border closure directives and temporarily suspending all flights to Ghana or let them pay for their hotel bills as they are quarantined. We may also consider housing them in temporarily vacated hostels.

“Travellers who feel inconvenienced must know that this is not a good time for globe-trotting."

He also suggested that “resources being spent in disinfecting markets, should be re-directed at supporting the current fight to contain the Coronavirus. If the market disinfection, as the Deputy Local Government Minister has hinted, isn’t a direct fight against the current danger, then we must rethink our use of resources in that area. We must get our priorities right in the fight against the Coronavirus.

“Why spend money to kill market bow-tied rats and other rodents, when we are told these aren’t necessarily carriers of the imported virus?”

He added that although the government must deal with “the insanitary conditions at the market places" and in the country's environments, it “must confront to contain the Coronavirus first, for, a bad thing is a good thing done at the wrong time.”