Covid-19: Oti residents in fear over heavy police-military presence
- Residents in the Oti Region feel intimidated about a joint police-military taskforce there
- The task force is to enforce Covid-19 compliance in that region
- Ghana’s Covid-19 cases keep soaring amid the advent of a variant
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Residents in the Oti Region say they feel intimidated by the presence of a joint military and police taskforce deployed to enforce Covid-19 directives there.
A week ago, the team descended on the residents ensuring all adhere. Some who challenged the authority of some members of the team were said to have been taken to the charge office and detained for some hours.
On Friday, the team returned to the lorry station to still sensitise the residents on the need to observe the various protocols seeing the rising numbers of positive cases with the new variant of the virus.
“We feel scared, it is like a military junta. Government must intervene and clear these people from our streets,” a resident told Joy News.
Source: UGC
Payment of fines
The Accra and Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly together with the Ghana Police Service, are imposing fines of 20 cedis on road users and traders who flout the mandatory mask-wearing mandate ordered by the President.
A Facebook post by a journalist with the Business and Financial Times, Osei Amankwah, shows a picture of the receipt acknowledging receipt of a 20 cedi fine imposed on one Dela.
So far, over 100,000 Ghanaians across the country have been arrested in a swoop by police officials for flouting the directive.
Ghana’s urgent current Covid-19 situation
Ghana has so far been added to the list of highly risky countries with a variant of the pandemic.
President Akufo Addo has introduced new restrictions - all wedding, parties and outdoor events are banned.
The Police survive has also been deployed to clamp down on Ghanaians flouting the mandatory mask-wearing directive.
Meanwhile, Ghana is expected to receive its first batch of 2.4 million vaccines by March, This will spark the first batch of inoculation even as the President aims to inoculate the entire population of 30 million.
Figures from the Ministry of Health shows a spike in daily numbers since December – this has been linked to indiscipline, flouting of covid-19 protocols and the elections.
Already, the Ghana Medical Association has warned the public that “their health is in their own hands” and hospitals get overstretched to deal with the surge of the virus.
Even as government races to curtail the spread of the virus, suspicions of a suppression of Covid-19 data keeps rising.
Journalists and some medical professionals are doubting the figures being churned by the Ministry of Health as they argue that they (the figures) are in sharp contrast with the reality at various medical facilities.
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Source: YEN.com.gh
