No, there’s no Impending Lockdown for Greater Accra Region

There have been viral reports  social media that suggests that the government of Ghana will put Greater Accra Region under another lockdown following a urge in COVID-19 cases.  The report appeared on a website with this link. This said report was published on May 21, 2020.

Claim/Statement: “Greater Accra should be ready for another possible lockdown.”

Verdict: Completely false

Explanation: The claim (headline) in the story was not attributed to any authority. The source of the story was also not clear.

In addition, President Nana Addo Danquah Akuffo Addo in his 7^th address to the nation on the 19^th April, 2020, when he lifted the partial lockdown, admitted that the country would continue to record new cases of infections but assured that the government had put in place appropriate measures to isolate and treat them. The president added that any community (not a region) that recorded excessive increase in cases would have movements restricted and a possible curfew. The information minister has  reiterated on several occasions at the press briefings that the government had realized that lockdown is not the way to necessarily go. That is why several protocols such as the wearing of nose masks, hand washing, social distancing and  use of alcohol-based hand sanitizers among others are being strictly enforced.

The Health Minister, Kwaku Agyemang Manu on the 15^th of May also said “generally, a lockdown is not something that we believe is going to work any longer. Now we have realized the lockdown taught us a lot of things and the impact is quite severe. So what we have to do now is to learn to live with the disease.”

A Public Relations Officer at the Ministry of Information also told Fact-Check Ghana that the assurances given by the Minister of Information were still the official position of the government and that a lockdown was not being considered.