For the first time since we started witnessing a surge in COVID-19 cases in the country, President Akufo-Addo has spoken about the trend and worryingly so.
The medical community was the first to press the alarm bell when the numbers started climbing. But now the President whose fortnight ‘Fellow Ghanaians updates’ on the state of the country’s chapter of the state of the pandemic declined appreciably in the past couple of months or so, had to bring the subject to the front burner once more yesterday.
Many countries in the other hemisphere and indeed parts of Africa are witnessing a third wave of the pandemic. And to think that this is happening in the face of a dearth of vaccines and the fact that we have not attained a herd immunization status yet aggravates our situation.
We have let our guard down after achieving so much in the way of COVID-19 management .
It is not too late to obviate the beckoning third wave of the pandemic. But the question as to whether the authorities will be ready to enforce the COVID-19 directives stands.
We are a difficult people when it comes to enforcing protocols such as in the matter of COVID-19.
President Akufo-Addo in his address to Muslims during the Eid Ul Adha prayers at the newly commissioned National Mosque could have spoken about other issues but the seriousness of the rising COVID-19 informed his decision to tackle it as a preferred subject and rightly so.
Most Ghanaians have not comprehended sufficiently the import of COVID-19 let alone a surge of it.
President Akufo-Addo as the father of the nation must consider taking more serious measures against COVID-19 protocol defaulters. Such persons are many and unless stringent measures are taken and enforced to the letter arresting the rising phenomenon of the pandemic would prove herculean if not impossible.
Most Ghanaians would only mask up because a law enforcement officer is standing at the corner. We are confronted with a pandemic which is merciless. Much is still being learnt about the notorious virus whose mutating nature adds to its mystery. One thing for sure though is the fact that adhering to the hygiene protocols as spelt out by the World Health Organisation (WHO) is a sure bet against it, coupled with full vaccination. But in the absence of the latter total commitment to the protocols is the only option.
Failure to comply with the foregone is a costly irresponsibility whose fallouts are not restricted to the source of the infection but others in the infection chain.
We should begin to as individuals insist that those we share spaces with in public places mask up and do so religiously.
The MMDCEs should as we mentioned in an earlier commentary be empowered to support the Police to enforce the hygiene protocols.
Mr. President unless we are hard on COVID-19 protocol defaulters the status quo would not only remain it would degenerate and regrettably so.
Even as we pray against the spread of the virus the whip should be cracked on COVID centrics.