COVID-19: We may lay down our tools if social gatherings are not banned – GMA

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The Ghana Medical Association (GMA) has reiterated calls for the government to place a ban on all public gatherings.

The Association had in an earlier press statement asked the government to ban such gatherings in order to contain the spread of COVID-19.

General Secretary of the Association, Dr. Justice Yankson said if government fails to adhere to their advice and things get out of hand, they will put down their tools.

He stressed that already the health facilities are “on their knees”.

“The issue is very simple, and we can only advise, and we can only advocate. The worst-case scenario is that we put our tools down but that might not be the solution for this pandemic because we don’t control the public purse, we don’t control the executive power. So we keep advising government.  Mind you, there are first-line government advisors, and we do our best to interact with them collectively as a group, but the ultimate sanctioning of a particular activity has to come from the president.”

“So inasmuch as that we’ve made the case, the best we can do is to continue to advocate that these social gatherings are banned and if the powers do not really act in that direction, the worst case is that we will also put down our tools because we are also tired.”

Dr. Yankson said this on Citi TV and Citi FM’s weekend current affairs programme, The Big Issue on Saturday, January 30, 2021.

What is Ghana’s current situation?

Ghana is currently experiencing another wave of COVID-19 infections.

The country has close to 4,000 active cases and 390 deaths as of the latest update by the Ghana Health Service (GHS).

This has led to pressure on health facilities in the country.

The Greater Accra, Ashanti, Central and Western regions are leading with high number of active cases.

The Africa Center for Disease Control (CDC) has also confirmed Ghana as amongst countries on the continent where the new variant is spreading.

It said, although it doesn’t readily have a full appreciation of the extent of spread of the new variants in Africa, it had confirmed that the 501Y.V2 variant which was first discovered in South Africa, is currently spread in 22 countries across the world including Ghana in a statement issued.