Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, the Minister of Information, says, the government has not lowered restrictions introduced to contain and stop the spread of the novel coronavirus pandemic by its lifting of the partial lockdown of parts of the country.

It has rather enhanced the measures through the compulsory wearing of the face masks to provide more protection and help reduce the transmission of the pathogen.

He noted that the wearing of face masks had become crucial in the fight against COVID-19 as the number of confirmed cases kept rising.

The perception held by some individuals that government had narrowed the response to the infection was incorrect and that “it has rather maintained and enhanced measures”.

Mr. Oppong Nkrumah was speaking at a press briefing to provide an update on the case management situation of COVID-19 and measures to halt the spread of the infection, in Accra.

The partial lockdown was to allow health experts to gather enough data to inform the government’s decisions.

The country’s response to the pandemic had been based on seven factors including the preventive etiquette, which “scientists say, has the ability to cut the transmitting rate”.

He said adding the wearing of masks to the measures already in place, had a high potential to curb the spread of the disease.



What they were now doing was making sure that the face masks became readily available to the population.
He reiterated that they were going to keep testing people for the virus. Ghana ranks first in Africa for the number of tests done.

He said the government would not hesitate to lockdown and impose curfew in any particular hotspots or districts where necessary, to contain the spread of the disease.

Ghana’s confirmed cases of COVID-19 currently stand at 1154, with 120 recoveries and nine deaths.