Civil Service football tournament cancelled over COVID-19 surge
A football tournament to mark the 2021 Civil Service Week Celebration has been postponed indefinitely due to a surge in COVID-19 cases in the country.
The tournament which was to start yesterday at the Accra Sports Stadium was called off at the 11th hour - a few minutes before balloting for the order of play was determined for over 27 participating Ministries and Departments.
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The Head of the Civil Service, Nana Kwesi Agyekum Dwamena informed visibly disappointed leaders of the participating teams that the directive to call off the tournament came from the Ministry of Health.
He said he was hopeful that the tournament would still be held later in the year when Coronavirus cases in the country were low. The country as of July 11, 2021, had 2,512 active cases of COVID-19.
Reasons
Providing further insight into the postponement of the competition, the Chairman of the 2021 Civil Service Week Celebration, Dr Evans Aggrey Darko said the tournament was called off because of concerns about the increasing cases of COVID-19 and accompanying infectious variants.
He said swift action had to be taken as the tournament was planned at a time when Coronavirus cases were low and the Ghana Premier League was ongoing with spectators in attendance.
"The Head of Civil Service was notified by the Chief Director of the Ministry of Health that in view of the current upsurge in active cases with all the variants, they thought that it will prudent for us to put this on hold," Dr Darko said.
However, he was hopeful that a new date would soon be announced for the competition when the number of COVID-19 cases in the country decline.
CAPTION: The Head of the Civil Service, Nana Kwesi Agyekum Dwamena
