Communications Minister Ursula Gifty Owusu-Ekuful on Thursday night sent colleague Members of Parliament reeling with laughter when she said COVID 19 and the subsequent lockdown had made husbands stay at home with their wives and their families.

The House had extended sitting late into Thursday night as it considered and passed under a certificate of urgency the Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) National Trust Fund Bill, 2020, to give legal backing to the setting up of a proposed fund to allow for contributions of monies and other resources to help in the fight against the COVID-1O0 pandemic.

The plenary was debating on which choice of word, whether afflict or impact, on the effects of the pandemic, and it was at this time that the Minister, who is also the MP for Ablekuma West, when given the floor, said an impact of the disease, was that it had made more men to be closer and staying longer, at home with their wives and children.

Later in an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA), the Minister said she had information that there was a hike in divorce rates in some countries where the disease had hit hard and prayed that such would not happen in Ghana.

She commended husbands who are taking advantage of the lockdown to be staying more at home with their wives and children, a situation she agreed helps families to bond better.

The Minister had in an earlier media interview, after the disease was recorded in Ghana, revealed that her husband, who had recently returned from a trip to the United Kingdom to Ghana had quarantined himself as part of measures to help prevent the spread of the Coronavirus disease (COVID-19).

She said he was served food by leaving it at the door to the room he was in isolation, and the husband was in a room in their house and not having contact with anyone in the house.

"They leave his food at the door. If we want to talk to him, we stand at a safe distance away and talk to him, we wave him, he's okay," Mrs Owusu-Ekuful had said.

However during the interview with the GNA, Mrs Owusu-Ekuful said the despite the ravaging nature of the disease, the lockdown in some affected countries is helping their citizens to rediscover their humanity, reduce emissions and improve upon their natural environment; and for mankind to get back to the basics of life and its necessities.

The disease and its associated restrictions, the Minister said, have no benefits, but urged that people took advantage of them to be more inventive. It is helping people to be virtual; using technology to achieve what otherwise would be done face-to-face.

She described the disease as a leveler, which has shown no respect for neither the rich nor the poor, levels of education and social status, adding, “I wonder how this simple tiny virus, which is not visible should cause such global attention.”

She added: ”Even if it’s a pandemic, it should help us to take a step back and take stock of our lives, and reassess what is really of value. Above all, it should help us to get closer to God, our maker.

“I’m hoping that after this, we’ll reassess our relationship with the universe and our place in it and see that it’s all interlinked. So what we can do can impact negatively on other species. And so, we should be more mindful of the way we treat nature.

“We should be more protective of the resources that we have been given so freely blessed with, and think about leaving a lasting legacy for the next generation.

“Even though it is a pandemic which is devastating life around the world if we stop… and think, we’ll realize that out of it all, there’s a silver lining to every cloud. And what it should do is to get us closer to our Creator, our Maker, and our God, because, without Him, we’re nothing.