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President Nana Akufo-Addo has lifted the three-week partial lockdown imposed in the Greater Accra and Greater Kumasi districts with effect from 1 am Monday, 20th April 2020.

This is in spite of the country's Coronavirus case count having increased to 1,042. Total samples tested so far stands at 68,591 with 1.5 % testing positive.

President Akufo-Addo announced this during his seventh address to the nation on the outbreak today, Sunday, April 19, 2020.

Reasons For Lifting Lockdown

According to him, the main reason the country has seen an increase in the number of confirmed cases over the last three weeks is because of the decision to aggressively trace and test contacts of infected persons.

“This has enabled us to identify and isolate infected persons, protect the population from further infections, and contain better the spread of the virus,” he said.

The President continued, “Indeed, Ghana is the only other country in Africa to have conducted more than 60,000 tests, and we are ranked number one in Africa in administering of tests per million people”.

“....in view of our ability to undertake aggressive contact tracing of infected persons, the enhancement of our capacity to test, the expansion in the numbers of our treatment and isolation centres, our better understanding of the dynamism of the virus, the ramping up of our domestic capacity to produce our own personal protective equipment, sanitisers and medicines, the modest successes chalked at containing the spread of the virus in Accra and Kumasi, and the severe impact on the poor and vulnerable, I have taken the decision to lift the three-week-old restriction on movements in the Greater Accra Metropolitan Area and Kasoa, and the Greater Kumasi Metropolitan Area and its contiguous districts, with effect from 1 am on Monday, 20th April,” he explained.

Observe Protocols

Although the lifting of the restrictions may come as a relief to the many whose livelihoods may have been hit hard following the imposition, access to some major sectors remains restricted.

Th country’s borders remain closed.

Further to these, all other measures including social distancing are also to be adhered to.

Additionally, suspension of public gathering including religious meetings, still stands; likewise the closure of all educational facilities.