On March 27 2020, president Akufo Addo declared a partial lockdown of Accra and Kumasi effective 1 am on Monday, March 30, as part of measures to break the transmission of the coronavirus.
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Escapees from Accra’s lockdown carried COVID-19 to the Volta region (report)
It has emerged that some of the COVID-19 cases recorded in the Volta region were as a result of some people running into the region from Accra in a bid to evade the restriction imposed on the Greater Accra Region, Kumasi and other parts of the country following the outbreak of the virus.
Escapees from Accra’s lockdown carried COVID-19 to the Volta region (report)
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Between March 27 when the restriction was announced and March 30 when it took effect, some people who had been living in the restricted areas fled the jurisdictions to their hometowns with the risk of carrying the virus to their villages.
Some analysts including the opposition National Democratic Congress had raised concerns about the leeway in the president’s directive which could render the precautionary measures counterproductive.
Now, a report by Joy News’ Fred Kwame Asare indicates that some of the 9 cases recorded in the Volta region were imported from the Greater Accra region.
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According to him, 6 of the cases detected at the Ketu-south municipal hospital were part of about 24 foreign nationals arrested at the Aflao border and taken into mandatory quarantine.
He further reported that a 22-year-old pregnant woman who returned to Hohoe from Ashaiman to give birth developed symptom 2 weeks later.
Another 32-year-old man who also returned to Hohoe from Tema before the lockdown took effect also developed symptoms days later.
The 1 case detected at the Ho Teaching Hospital is a 48-year-old man from Accra to the Volta regional capital and started showing symptoms 12 days after his return.
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According to the World Health Organisation, ”the ‘incubation period’ which means the time between catching the virus and beginning to have symptoms of the disease ranges from 1-14 days, most commonly around five days.”
If the above-stated fact is anything to go by, then one can safely conclude that the 1 case detected at the Ho Teaching Hospital and two others recorded in Hohoe were some of the absconders who left the virus’ epicentre between the time of the announcement of the lockdown and the time it took effect, because they couldn’t have left during the lockdown unless there was a security lapse.
Also, if they had left before the president announced the lockdown which has been 17 days already, their cases would have been detected some few days earlier going by the WHO’s “1-14 days incubation period”.
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