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 7^th 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.