President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo in a televised address to the nation on 31st May 2020, announced that some restrictions that were put in place to prevent the spread of the coronavirus disease will be eased. He made known that these measures to ease restrictions will be strategic, controlled, progressive and safe.
However, multi-award-winning Journalist, Fati Shaibu Ali, has said that the easing of restrictions by the Government has some identifiable shortcomings which cannot be overlooked.
She made these assertions in a panel discussion with co-hosts Samuel Eshun and Raymond Nyamador on the Happy Morning show.
Speaking on the easing of the ban on social gathering, she expressed her concerns over whether the churches will adhere to the health protocols in order to avoid the spread of the virus.
“We were already aware that the Government was going to ease some of the restrictions. But I have issues with the directives. For example, how many churches do we have in Ghana? How many of these churches are well coordinated?
How will the one-man churches be monitored to ensure that they are going by the directives and that they are not taking undue advantage of easing of the restrictions? The buildings of some churches are in such a way that they only use air conditioners without any windows. Thus, how effective will social distancing be with 100 people in such a building?
What about the offerings we give in the form of money? We know money is one form the disease gets transmitted. So how will those who are in charge of the money handle it? And then when it comes to the limit of the one hour worship time, how are we sure these churches will comply?”, she enquired.
She noted that it will be difficult for churches to comply with the directive of 25% of their members congregating as some churches have thousands of members. “Some churches’ 25% of members may be 10 while another’s 25% is 500. So how will we control that? Now it is said that it should not be more than a 100 at the time. So who are we going to let into the church and who are we going to send away?” she added.
She also raised concerns over the reopening of schools for final year students. She pointed out that even though there may be available classrooms to accommodate small student groups, the issue of an adequate number of teachers will be a problem.
She was cynical about Government’s ability to distribute nose masks to schools before the reopening of schools on the 15th of June, 2020 as promised by the President in the televised address to the nation yesterday.
By: Alberta Dorcas N D Armah