Coronavirus: NDC MP’s Claim Completely False

Minority Ranking Member of the Health Committee and Member of Parliament for Juaboso Constituency, Honourable Kwabena Mintah Akandor, on Thursday, March 12, 2020 made a claim on Accra-based GHOne TV on Ghana’s preparedness towards fighting an outbreak of the novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. His claim followed President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo’s address the previous day to the nation on measures the government had instituted to prevent the spread of the disease should Ghana record a case. The MFWA fact-checking team has examined his claim. Below is the verdict and its bases.

Claim: “We started talking about our preparedness even before WHO came in to score us zero (0) for not been prepared.”

Verdict: Completely False

Explanation: On February 15, 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) issued a report on Ghana’s preparedness status based on their review as at 7th February, 2020. The statement rated Ghana on various aspects of preparation including laboratory capacity, surveillance, coordination and overall preparation. In terms of overall preparation, Ghana was rated 59%.  The only category that Ghana was rated 0% was ‘Case Management’ which is understandable because Ghana had not recorded any case at the time.

Related articles