Coronavirus: Government empowers security forces to enforce partial lockdown

Pulse Staff 15:27 - 29 March 2020

Government empowers security forces to enforce partial lockdown

Government has empowered the security forces to enforce the partial lockdown of certain parts of the country in order to contain the spread of the COVID-19 virus, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, has said.

“Let me also reiterate that the ban on public gatherings, religious or social, is still in force. Anyone, irrespective of status, religion or ethnicity, who is found to be flouting them will be dealt with fully in accordance with the law,” President Akufo-Addo stated in his address to the nation on Friday on the COVID-19 outbreak in the country.

“The security services have been clothed with the necessary power to enforce these measures, and I assure you that they will do so responsibly, but without fear or favour, ill-will or malice,”

He said the Government had succeeded in halting any more importations of the virus into the country; adding that “and I thank the overwhelming majority of you for adhering to the good hygiene and social distancing protocols announced in my first broadcast to you”.

He said, however, prevailing circumstances meant that stricter measures had to be put in place to contain and halt the spread of the virus within the country, especially in Accra, Tema, Kasoa and Kumasi, which were identified by the Ghana Health Service as the “hotspots” of the infections.

“In doing this, we cannot afford to copy blindly, and do all the things some other well-developed countries are doing,” he stated.