The Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences has described as “helpful and resolute”, the show of leadership by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo in the fight against the growing threat of the COVID-19 in the country.

The remark was made when a delegation from the Academy paid a courtesy call on President Akufo-Addo on Friday, 3 April 2020 at Jubilee House in Accra.

The purpose of the meeting was to present a report on the findings, recommendations and assessment of activities undertaken, thus far, by respective government institutions and interested parties in helping to mitigate the pandemic.  

Addressing the President, Prof. Samuel K.Sefa-Dedeh stated that, “we recognise the resolute policies that you, the President of Ghana, and the government has put in place to contain the epidemic. This has made a huge difference in the number of cases that have recorded.”

He stated further that “some the highlights that your government has undertaken, as we have said, have been critical in controlling the pandemic; widespread testing for the virus, quarantine of cases, contact tracing, isolation of contacts and physical distancing, community engagement and education of the community so they understand the severity of this illness and its impact that it will have.”

The Academy appealed, also, to the government to ensure that healthcare workers battling the disease are adequately protected, and urged the government to “have a modelling of the epidemic using raw data from the Ghana Health Service Disease Surveillance Unit and hope that this can be put in place so that we have daily data.”

Touching on testing, Prof. Sefa Dedeh lauded Government on the premium placed on enhancing the ability of the Noguchi Memorial Institute and the Kumasi Centre for Collaborative Research to test for the virus, and also in accelerating the establishment of more testing centres.

“I think that Ghana has a unique window, in two or three weeks, in which to implement what government has put in place to ameliorate this epidemic; in enhancing the education in the public on social distancing, lockdown, and self-containment. They are critical few weeks in which the measures you and your government have put in place will bear results,’ he added.