Best actions needed to keep COVID-19 out

All over the world, people are dying in their hundreds. The clock is ticking and desperation has set in. The COVID-19 pandemic is getting worse, bringing many nations, mostly the so-called mighty, to their knees.

In spite of their status, we see countries with some of the fattest bank accounts and the best manufacturing companies and health facilities succumbing to the virus.

From what we have read about the virus, it is clear that its nature is not known, a situation which is making it difficult for the best brains in the medical field to come up with a vaccine to halt its spread.

In the last few days in Ghana, we have witnessed the gradual increase in the number of infected persons. Compared to what is going on in other nations, we should be worried and not go to sleep over the rising cases. This is because countries which are experiencing worse case scenarios now, such as China, the USA, Spain, the UK and Italy, had looked on while their infected cases rose gradually, instead of putting in place the necessary drastic measures to halt the spread.

In short, they took the virus for granted.

This is what the Daily Graphic would not want to see happen to us here in Ghana. When the President announced a $100-million package to help fight the spread of the disease, many were those who heaved sighs of relief because, for a country such as ours, that was enough to start the fight.

The relief was premised on the fact that we were taking proactive steps to fight the spread.

We hope that the money is already meeting the intended purposes to prevent what can be described as an imminent national public health crisis.

We would also like to join the Director of the Institute of Social, Statistical and Economic Research (ISSER) of the University of Ghana in calling on the government to, as a matter of urgency, release funds to the pharmaceutical companies in the country to enable them to produce en mass all the necessary protective gear for frontline health workers and the needed sanitary products to be used by the public.

Judging from the way many countries across the world are struggling to provide all the needed protective gear for their frontline medical personnel who are exposed to the virus, given the growing number of COVID-19 patients, we should be lucky to have very low numbers, a situation which calls for urgent action on our part.

The Daily Graphic strongly believes that this is the time to spend, if necessary, all we have to provide protective gear and sanitary products to help the people halt the spread. It will cost us less if we do so, and the time for that action must be now.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has also sounded the alarm bells in that regard and, therefore, we need not sit idle to let the problem escalate before we attempt a fire-fighting approach.

The warning signs are all over on the wall and the time to act and act fast is now to halt the spread of the virus.

So far, we are encouraged by the moves taken by the government, which include the disinfestation exercises across all markets and places where people gather most, as part of measures to help stop the spread.

We are also happy about the directive to stop all flights from entering the country from any part of the world. Judging from the fact that most of the cases recorded are imported, the directive is laudable, even though we think it should have come a little earlier.

The Daily Graphic strongly trusts that, from the foregoing, the best actions will be taken fast to keep the country and its good people safe and eventually get the economy back on track.