Lockdowns are painful but effective in curbing coronavirus – Expert

Ghana does not immediately require a lockdown but may have to consider the measure depending on how the coronavirus spread continues.

This is the view of Nana Kofi Kwakye, a research fellow at the Department of Health and Management at New York University.

“A lockdown is a very blunt tool but it is effective at slowing down the

Read full articlerates of transmission and buying the health system and public health systems time if the other measures we are putting in place are not proving effective,” he told Joy FM in an interview.

He cited the case where young people are increasingly being admitted after contracting the virus adding that a strain on the public health system will have dire consequences.

“If we have a case where our ICUs – Intensive Care Units – are so overburdened, our physicians are so overburdened … anything we can do that reduces the rate of infection and gives some buffer to the folks in the ICU and the medical profession, that is always a good thing,” he added.

The Ghana Medical Association is on record to have asked government to impose a lockdown to curb spread of the virus. Ghana imposed a lockdown on Accra and Kumasi shortly after the virus arrived in the country last year.

The last official position on lockdown was a suggestion by President Akufo-Addo, that there was a possibility that more stringent virus control measures could be instituted if cases continued to rise.

The compulsory wearing of face masks remains in place while there are also bans on certain public gatherings as per the president’s address. He ordered the police to enforce such measures.

“They (police) are also to ensure the closure of all night clubs, pubs, cinemas and beaches that may be operating in defiance of the law. They will be assisted by the other security agencies if need be,” the president emphasized.