Let’s discuss the ‘New normal’ - Oppong Nkrumah
There is the need for a national discussion on how to transition the country into living with COVID-19 in safety, referred to as living the “new normal,” the Minister of Information, Mr Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, has said.
He explained that a broader discourse beyond ongoing stakeholder engagements was part of the government’s social mobilisation efforts to find an all-inclusive and better responsive solution to easing the COVID-19-occasioned restrictions gradually.
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Addressing a bi-weekly briefing on COVID-19, the minister said the conversation on living the new normal would be in two-fold.
“We would be leading one aspect of the conversation as state, while we encourage our partners in the fourth estate of the realm, the media, to also, as they do always, help by engaging the public actively on their platforms to solicit views and relay it to the government,” he explained.
According to Mr Oppong Nkrumah, the issue was not whether or not it was possible to ease the restrictions, but specifically, “what people think will take them to live normal as possible with the virus in the global and national ecosystem, while ensuring the public was safe.”
Mr Oppong Nkrumah said that had become necessary because the world had come to the realisation that COVID-19 would be around for a long time, but living forever in restriction was not feasible.
“The world is coming to a realisation that what appeared to be one of the preventive measures, the lockdown or stay-at-home policies and other restrictions cannot go on in perpetuity.
“And so at some point, as we are seeing all over the world, there is the need to ease those restrictions gradually with the consciousness that the pandemic was still in the global ecosystem and, therefore, public health safety protocols were to be adhered to,” he added.
COVID-19 update
Providing an update on COVID-19, the Director-General of the Ghana Health Service, Dr Patrick Kumah Aboagye, said 173 new cases of the disease had been recorded since last Tuesday, bringing the national tally to 6,269.
He said there were 125 new recoveries, bringing the total number of recoveries to 1,898, while 31 infected persons with underlying health conditions died, leaving a national active case of 4,340.
Dr Aboagye also said so far, 187,929 tests had been conducted nationwide.
He said cases from general surveillance stood at 1,920; enhanced contact tracing at 4,234, while compulsory quarantine of travellers stood at 115.
The regional breakdown of confirmed cases are as follows: Greater Accra - 4,582; Ashanti-921; Central-285; Western-170; Western North-57; Eastern-106; Volta-41; and Northern-31.
The rest are Oti-26; Upper East-26; Upper West-21; North East-2; and Bono -1.
Bono East, Ahafo and Savannah regions have not yet recorded any COVID-19 cases.
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