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But addressing the House on Friday, the president urged lawmakers and Parliament staff to take all precautionary measures to ensure the disease does not spiral out of control in the Legislature.
He stressed that it would be suicide for the country if the legislative arm of the government closed because the disease was not effectively managed when it was registered in his sector.
“We should not allow Parliament to close, that is not an alternative, it would be too suicidal for the whole country because there are many things we have to do.
“Even for this country to be able to fight Covid-19, Parliament will have to work with the executive and the judiciary to keep Ghana alive. So let’s remain ‘honorable’, that word is not an empty title. An honorable Member of Parliament must behave honorably, ”said Mr. Bagbin.
Meanwhile, the Minister-designate for Communications and Digitization, Ursula Owusu-Ekuful, has denounced the Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research (NMIMR) for violating ethical standards of doctor-patient confidentiality.
He asked why a reputable institution like Noguchi will hand over the test results of MPs and their staff to Parliament’s leadership without their prior knowledge and subsequent approval.
“In the future, I think it is important that they design a consent form for everyone taking a test to notify them that their test will be shared with the Ghana Health Service for contact tracing purposes and with the department head. if it is an institution requesting the test.
“This will protect them [NMIMR] and the people from whom the samples have been taken are also assured that their results will be treated with the confidentiality it deserves, ”he suggested.
But the minority leader, Mohamed Muntaka Mubarak, did not agree with Ms Owusu-Ekuful’s position that NMIMR has violated doctor-patient confidentiality.
Citing Article 18 (2), which establishes that “no person shall be subjected to interference in the privacy of his home, property, correspondent or communication, except in accordance with the law, as necessary in a free and democratic society for security public or the economy. ” for the welfare of the country and for the protection of health, ”said Mr. Muntaka that sharing the status of Covid-19 with the leaders of Parliament is in accordance with the 1992 Constitution.
The Asawase MP further urged leaders to reject the test results of MPs from private labs conducting Covid-19 testing.
“This is something very serious, we should not play semantics with that. Let us unite as one people to defeat him and when we take action, let’s comply with it.
“I completely disagree with people who say they have gone for their own private tests. We must not accept that, we must have the same denominator for each one of us. NMIMR is a credible institution that we have selected for all of us to pass, therefore, we must all submit to it for testing, “he said.
Majority Leader Osei Kyei Mensah Bonsu, for his part, called on members to stop bastardizing private companies testing for Covid-19 as if they were not credible facilities.
