Dr. Randy Abbey, host of Good Morning Ghana on Metro TV, says the novel Coronavirus has exposed a lot of fundamental weaknesses in the country. He added that the end of this novel virus should not take the country back to the old ways of doing things.
According to him, the country struggled in dealing with four hundred thousand of those who are considered as vulnerable or underprivileged during the period the president announced a three-week lockdown in Greater Accra, Tema, Kasoa and Greater Kumasi.
Dr Abbey who was a guest on ‘The KSM Show’ on Metro TV Friday, May 1, 2020, said that Ghana had no data on such people, which made it difficult for the country to properly share food to these individuals… “that brought into sharp focus the welfare nature of this country”.
He added: "Until COVID-19, we were using all manner of superlatives to talk about how well we’ve done but all of a sudden, this thing which is not even three-months old in Ghana is telling us that indeed we haven’t done anything.”
Dr Abbey noted that COVID-19 has “actually brought to the fore the weaknesses…whatever we have; the supper structure is on a very weak foundation.”
He indicated that due to poor preparation, a lockdown which was to combat the spread of the novel Coronavirus amongst the Ghanaian citizenry would have rather killed the very people the country decided to protect because of hunger.
“Whilst others are talking about the new normal, how are we averting our minds to what the new normal is and which steps are we taking to ensure that we will be ready for the new normal or we’re really adapting to the new normal. Are we rather talking about this too shall pass and not waiting for it to pass so that we get back to our comfort zone?” he quizzed.
Dr Randy Abbey explained that there are many things that have happened which has given Ghanaians the opportunity to do things differently but these opportunities have been made to slip by.
“What is the encouragement that this too shall pass?” he asked.
Ghana's Coronavirus case count stands at 2,169 with 229 recoveries and 18 deaths.