General News of Wednesday, 25 March 2020

Source: kasapafmonline.com

Lets modify public transport policy to prevent spread – Akufo-Addo to Transport Owners

The president made the call in a meeting transport owners at the Jubilee House The president made the call in a meeting transport owners at the Jubilee House

President Akufo-Addo, has appealed to transport operators and owners in Ghana to dialogue with government to find ways of modifying the existing public transport policy in the wake of the covid-19 pandemic.

In an interaction with transport owners at the Jubilee House as part of efforts of his Government to stop the spread of the coronavirus, Covid-19, in Ghana, President Akufo-Addo indicated that it has become necessary for government to engage transport owners to find ways through which their sector can make some compromises in the interest of public safety and health.

“You are responsible for moving our people around the country, private and public transport. So comes the question, how are we going to organize it in such a way that our people can still move around but do so taking into account this disease that is ravaging the world. I want us to have a conversation to see the arrangements we can put in place to achieve same” President Akufo-Addo.

There have been calls for sweeping reforms in various sectors of the country’s economy on the back of the dreaded global plague.

Prominent amongst the calls is the reduction of how many passengers that public transport operators (Trotro) should seat per roll in order to observe the social distancing policy in public vehicles.

President Akufo-Addo and the transport owners after the introductory remarks moved into a closed door session to reach a compromise over the proposals of government.

Covid-19 in Ghana

Coronavirus confirmed cases has scaled up to 52 in Ghana, after the country recorded 25 new cases on Tuesday.

The 25 new cases were confirmed among the 1,030 people who are under mandatory quarantine in the country after arriving at the Kotoka International Airport hours to the deadline for the closure of the country’s borders.

Samples were taken from 611 people and out of 185 of the samples 25 tested positive for COVID-19.

Ghana’s Minister of Health, Kweku Agyeman Manu disclosed this on Tuesday, March 25, 2020.

Meanwhile, other persons in mandatory quarantine are yet to be tested.

Global Situation

According to the official Covid-19 website of the Ghana Health Service, www.ghanahealthservice.org/Covid-19, the global situation on confirmed cases stands at 339,645 and over 14,717 persons have lost their lives. Some 98,840 have so far recovered from the coronavirus infection as at 10:00am, 24th of March 2020.