Ghana might go on nationwide lockdown – Dr Tobbin
Dr Samuel Amo Tobbin, the Executive Chairman of the Tobinco Group of Companies, says Ghana might go on a nationwide lockdown if God does not intervene.
He said the unfortunate could happen as many people upon hearing the announcement of the restriction of movement, travelled to their hometowns on Saturday and Sunday March 20, 2020 to escape the order.
Those who had travelled to other regions, he said, were not tested and their COVID-19 status is unknown.
By this, Dr Tobbin said, if the disease spreads across the nation through the process of migration and relocation, then government might be forced to impose a nationwide lockdown on the country.
He said government should have imposed the restriction of movement order just when it announced it, to make it impossible for people to travel to other regions that were not under restriction.
He said this on Wednesday in an interview with the Ghana News Agency in Accra.
Dr Tobbin, who is also the Chief Executive Officer of the Tobinco Pharmaceuticals Limited, said a surge of the respiratory disease in the country would affect many businesses, especially as a result of the restriction of movement.
“Talking about the Tobinco Group of Companies for instance, about 60 per cent of our staff are staying at home, at the end of the month, we still need to pay them, even for work they have not done. We cannot say we won’t pay them, so it’s going to affect businesses a lot, if especially the lockdown is prolonged,” he said.
He said it is unfortunate and heart breaking how people have lost loved ones through the pandemic adding that the country’s economy was also going to be largely affected.
He appealed to citizens to critically adhere to the preventive measures put in place by the World Health Organisation and the Ghana Health Service such as washing of hands with soap under running water, covering nose or mouth with disposable tissue paper when sneezing or coughing, using alcohol based hand sanitizers, and keeping social distances to stay safe.
“If you visit prophets and buy anointing oil for direction to stay safe from COVID-19 and don’t observe the preventive measures, trust me, you might contract the disease. So let’s all be careful,” he advised.
Source: GNA