President of the Judicial Service Staff Association (JUSAG), Alex Nartey, says his outfit has advised vulnerable staff of the service to proceed on leave as the pandemic continues to swell.

The president was addressing the press on the various interventions put in place by JUSAG to ensure that staff are safe as proceedings journey on.

According to Alex Nartey, in line with the public sector arrangements “we have identified certain health conditions and granted them leave. Nursing mothers, breastfeeding mothers. Workers with conditions such as HIV were also encouraged to go on leave”.

He also added that although the country is operating in unusual times, the needs of the citizenry for justice must be adequately satisfied.

The Chief Justice in March, issued a directive that allowed only persons connected to a court case be allowed in courtrooms following the outbreak of Coronavirus.

The hearing of all trials that involve the movement of remand prisoners from prison to the court were also banned.

Judges and Magistrates were also directed to only hear cases which are of extreme urgency, exercise great restraint in remanding accused persons, in order to avoid overcrowding the prisons and police cells.

Coronavirus

Ghana’s Covid-19 cases has hit 313 with one more death recorded as of Tuesday, the Ghana Health Service has announced.

This means the country recorded 26 more cases from the last count of 287 on Monday. That makes it 99 cases in 72 hours.

The regional distribution of the cases are as follows: Greater Accra Region has most cases (274) followed by the Ashanti Region (25), Northern Region (10), Upper West Region (1), Eastern Region (1), Upper East Region (1) and Central Region (1).