The president, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, has celebrated the end of COVID-19 as a global pandemic.
Ghanaians, he said, can now return to the normal lives they are used to and engage with family and friends once more.
According to the President, throughout these trying COVID times, he kept urging Ghanaians to believe this too shall pass.
“Dare I say that this too has passed? The emergency is over.”
“We can safely lift many of the oppressive restrictions we have had to endure, we can shake hands, we can hug, we can visit, and we no longer have to wear masks,” he stated.
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Delivering his final COVID-19 update to the nation on Sunday 28th May 2023, President Akufo-Addo appealed to Ghanaians to keep some of the measures imposed during the crisis and integrate them into their everyday lives because they served people well and will continue to serve them well.
Regular hand washing and other personal hygiene measures, he said, should be continued so they become entrenched national habits.
“There has been a dramatic decrease in diarrhoea diseases, and we have not had any cholera outbreaks these past three years – these developments are attributable mostly to the hand washing and improved hygiene regimen in our communities.”
“It does not hurt to wear a mask if you have a cold for example, it might protect those around you. If you are uncomfortable in a crowded and enclosed space, go out into the open and continue the new ways we have devised for outside entertainment.”
“I hope there will be no argument that we should continue and institutionalize the periodic cleansing, disinfection, and fumigation of markets. Never again should our markets be breeding grounds for rodents,” he added.
According to President Akufo-Addo, the Coronavirus nightmare has also brought some good dividends that must be acknowledged.
“It has led to the strengthening of our disease surveillance system, and this has been manifested in recent months by our ability to deal, in a very rapid and aggressive way, with outbreaks of frightening diseases like Marburg, Lassa fever, Monkey Pox, before they could turn into serious public health catastrophes.”
The pandemic, he said, also exposed some of the painful deficiencies Ghana has and forced some brave and necessary decisions, like the expansion of the network of health facilities under Agenda 111.
He observed that but for the pandemic, the network of health laboratories with the capacity to do PCR testing in Ghana would not have expanded exponentially from the initial 2 to 67 laboratories nationwide.
He stated that Ghana came out of the global catastrophe much better than many other countries, considering the rate of infection, hospitalization, and deaths.
According to him, this happened because Ghana worked at it in a focused and competent manner. And refused to be swayed by the populist noises, conspiracy theory peddlers, and false and uninformed analysts, and rather relied firmly on science and data-driven information for guidance.