One-week lockdown extension inadequate – Global Health Expert

President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo should have extended the lockdown in some parts of the country by more than a week to contain the coronavirus, a lecturer at the Global Health Department of the KNUST School of Public Health, Dr John Humphrey Amuasi, has suggested.

“I was expecting a little more than a week based on what we have seen,” the Senior Research Fellow at the Kumasi Center for Collaborative Research in Tropical Medicine said.

The centre is one of two places, including the Noguchi Memorial Centre for Medical Research, testing coronavirus cases in Ghana.

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With coronavirus cases soaring to 378 with six deaths and no signs of slowing yet, Dr Amoasi said additional days beyond a week would have been better to stop further movements facilitating spread.

The affected areas are the Greater Accra Region, the Ashanti Region and parts of the Central Region.

For him, the extension was anticipated, and he would have been surprised if the restrictions had been withdrawn.

He acknowledged not being privy to all the parameters considered before the decision by the president, but he indicated that it was expected based on the current trajectory of infections.

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Dr Amuasi explained that measures implemented would not bring instant results, but curtailing movements must be intensified.

He pointed out that it was possible for the number of infections and deaths to rise just after lockdown and implementation of other measures but was quick to add that it was common with interventions across the globe.

“Things will often get worse before they get better and we can see that in what is happening in many other countries,” he stressed.

There may be “a higher number of cases, you may experience a higher number of deaths” and then where there is a daily decrease in infection authorities can conclude that the peak has been recorded and so a decreasing trend should be expected.

The Eastern and Central regions are the latest areas to record COVID-19 with one and 15 cases respectively.

A total of 37,405 samples from routine and enhanced surveillance have been collected. Out of these, 14,611 have been tested. Four have been treated, discharged and have tested negative, 366 cases have been categorised as mild to moderate disease on treatment and two cases are currently on ventilators.