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SPEECH TO THE NATION BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC, NANA ADDO DANKWA AKUFO-ADDO,
ABOUT THE UPDATES TO GHANA’S ENHANCED RESPONSE TO THE CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC, SUNDAY, JANUARY 3, 2021.
Ghanaian colleagues, good evening.
I wish you all a happy and prosperous new year. We have to be thankful to Almighty God for joining us in 2020, undoubtedly one of the most memorable years in human history.
I’m sure many, on the stroke of midnight on December 31, were happy to see the end of 2020, with the global COVID-19 pandemic being the main reason. Unfortunately, COVID-19 is still with us, and that is why I have come to your homes for the twenty-first (21) time to bring you more updates on the decisions made by the government to try to return our lives safely to normal and achieve our ultimate goal of zero active cases.
Since the announcement, on Wednesday, March 11, 2020, of the first set of restrictions to help win the fight against the virus, the Government has imposed several more to this end. Measures including the temporary partial closure of the Greater Accra Metropolitan Area, Tema, Kasoa and the Greater Kumasi Metropolitan Area and contiguous districts, the closure of our schools, adherence to improved hygiene protocols, social distancing and use of masks, the The banning of assemblies and the closure of our schools and our borders imposed considerable difficulties on all of us.
Since then, several of these restrictions have been relaxed and others remain in effect. As of January 1, the number of active cases in Ghana amounts to eight hundred and seventy-nine (879) cases, with fifty-three thousand, and five (54,005) recoveries, eighteen (18) serious cases but no critical cases. We have performed six hundred seventy-four thousand eight hundred twelve (674,812) tests, with fifty-five thousand two hundred twenty (55,220) positive cases detected. Unfortunately, there have been three hundred thirty-six (336) deaths.
This is a relatively welcome picture, when data from other countries is taken into account, especially also at a time when many parts of the world are having to deal with a second wave of infections and a new variant of the virus, which is said to be more transmittable than the original version.
So far, in Ghana, we have not detected any cases of this new variant. Our scientists tell us that the genetic makeup of the virus in the country has not yet changed.
The Ghana Health Service, with the support of relevant institutions, continues to closely monitor the events and will advise the Government on the way forward. Consequently, adherence to improved hygiene protocols, social distancing and mask use remain the tools of our war, even as vaccines reach Ghana. By strictly adhering to these protocols, we also ensure that crippling restrictions and closures do not become options for the government.
Until then, the Government, in consultation with the appropriate stakeholders, will continue to seek a strategic, controlled, progressive and safe relaxation of restrictions, this time in all public and private basic schools, secondary schools, preparatory and tertiary schools throughout the country. . , as of this January. The lessons learned from the reopening of some sections of our educational institutions over the past year have put us in a much better position to successfully oversee the full reopening of our schools. Our children must go to school, albeit safely, and we are pleased that under the current circumstances, reopening our schools is safe.
So, starting on January 15th, our kindergarten, elementary and middle school children, both in private and public schools, will be back in school. All SHS 1 students will begin classes on March 10, and all students will embark on a one-way academic calendar. However, your seniors in SHS 2 and SHS 3 will be returning to school starting January 18. I must emphasize that SHS 3 students in all schools, like SHS 1 students, will no longer run the dual track system. The expansion of the infrastructure in the different secondary schools, during the last three (3) years, has led us to this favorable situation. However, the two-way system will continue to apply to SHS 2 students at the schools that are employing it. Students from universities and other colleges must be in school beginning Saturday, January 9.
Prior to their return to school, the Government, through the Ministry of Education and the Ghana Education Service, will ensure that all institutions, public and private, are fumigated and disinfected. Schools and institutions, with their own hospitals and clinics, will be equipped with the necessary personal protective equipment and will have isolation centers to deal with positive cases. All other schools and institutions, without their own clinics and hospitals, have been assigned to health facilities. For now, there will be no mass gatherings or sports activities. However, religious activities for students will be allowed at school under the new protocols. Social distancing and the use of masks must become the norm in our schools. Provisions have been made to ensure that students at all levels of the educational ladder receive the minimum number of contact hours upon return to school.
To facilitate student safety, the Government, through the Ministry of Education, will provide masks, ‘Veronica’ buckets, hand sanitizers, liquid soap, tissue paper rolls and thermometer guns for the safe reopening of schools. The Ministry of Information, the Ministry of Education, the Ghana Health Service and the Ghana Education Service will begin a series of awareness campaigns from Monday, January 4 to help prepare, inform and educate tutors, students and the public on other modalities associated with reopening.
I want to use this address to assure all parents and guardians that the Government is determined to protect the lives of all students, teachers, and non-teaching personnel who will return to school. It bears repeating that everyone must strictly adhere to protocols to protect themselves and others.
Ghanaian colleagues, it is well established that the first cases of COVID-19 in Ghana were imported to our shores. Limiting the importation of cases has therefore been one of our main objectives since the outbreak of the disease in the country. We in Ghana have always been concerned about the arrival of variant strains of the virus in the country. That’s why when we opened our international airport on September 1, we introduced one of the most stringent testing regimes in the world, a two-tier testing system, which stated that all passengers arriving at Kotoka must be in possession of a negative PCR test result upon arrival in Ghana, a test that should have been performed no more than seventy-two (72) hours prior to scheduled departure from the country of origin. In addition to this, all passengers were required to undergo a mandatory COVID test upon arrival.
As of January 1, 2021, there have been a total of seven hundred twelve (712) positive cases, one hundred and eighteen thousand, two hundred seventy-eight (118,278) tests carried out, among international arrivals at Kotoka International Airport. . In fact, only the month of December registered three hundred and eighty-seven (387) cases. The positivity rate among international arrivals increased from 0.26% in September to 0.93% in December.
These developments require the strengthening of existing protocols to prevent the spread of the disease in Ghana, in light of the new variant of the virus. Therefore, the following measures, in addition to the existing international travel guidelines for COVID-19, will be implemented in Ghana:
1. All arriving passengers who test positive for COVID-19, asymptomatic or not, will be subjected to mandatory isolation and treatment at a designated health facility or isolation center. The isolation will be for a period of seven (7) days in charge of the Government. However, the final discharge of cases will be based on existing case management guidelines and protocols;
2. All passengers in isolation will undergo a repeat COVID-19 test within twenty-four (24) hours after arrival, at the cost also borne by the Government. This test will also include COVID-19 genomic sequencing; and
3. All passengers who test negative for COVID-19 must continuously adhere to COVID-19 security protocols and will receive regular information on COVID-19 within five (5) days of arrival in Ghana.
I want to assure all Ghanaians that the testing regimen established in Kotoka is among the most stringent in the world and as certified by the Food and Drug Authority is capable of detecting this new variant of COVID-19, which is affecting to other nations around the world.
Ghanaian colleagues, in Update No. 20, before the Christmas festivities, I made a passionate call to you to ensure compliance with COVID protocols, and reiterated that, among others, beaches, pubs, cinemas and nightclubs should be closed until more realize. The working group that advises me on COVID measures is constantly reviewing the situation and will propose to me when it is safe to lift the restriction.
You will recall that, in our quest to help protect you from the effects of the virus, the government made the decision to provide relief to Ghanaians, including absorbing electricity and water bills. This aid package ended in December. However, with the continuing difficulties caused by the pandemic, I want to state that the Government intends to continue supporting the most vulnerable in our society. Therefore, the government will continue to pay the electricity bills of the one million active customers in our country during the next three months, that is, January, February and March. In addition, the one million five hundred thousand clients of the Ghana Water Company, whose consumption does not exceed five cubic meters per month, will not pay any invoice during the next three months, that is, the months of January, February and March. This aid package will be reviewed at the end of March.
Ghanaian colleagues, it has been over nine (9) months since we have all made adjustments to many aspects of our lives and daily routines. It has not been an easy task, I know. Yet we have done so to protect our lives, the lives of our loved ones, and the lives of our heroic healthcare workers who continue to care for those affected by the virus and the sick in general. With Ghana poised to procure its first shipment of COVID vaccines in the first half of this year, there is light at the end of the tunnel. But we are not out of the woods yet. So, let’s all follow the path of strict compliance with the protocols. There is nothing beyond us, the people of Ghana, who were the first in sub-Saharan Africa to gain our freedom from colonial rule. We can do it.
It has been my responsibility to go to your homes with these updates twenty-one times and it has certainly been an absolute honor and privilege to have served you as your President for the past four years. I look forward to fulfilling the mandate entrusted to me and my Government for the next four years, and together we will defeat COVID and guide this beloved country of ours back onto the path of progress and prosperity.
This too shall pass! Because the Battle is still the Lords !!
May God bless us all, and our homeland Ghana, and make it great and strong.
Thank you for your attention and have a good night.
