On Sunday, 19th April 2020, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo announced the lifting of the restriction to movements of persons in Accra, Kasoa and Kumasi. This announcement moved some Ghanaians to jubilate on the streets, defying the social distancing order.
While some have heavily criticized the Government for this occurrence on the basis that the Government’s communication gave the impression that COVID-19 is no more, Ghana’s Ambassador to Italy, Her Excellency, Mrs. Eudora Quartey Koranteng has said that no one can be faulted for how Ghanaians behaved after the restrictions were lifted.
In a Happy FM-led virtual interaction on COVID-19, she explained that the need to move about freely is an inherent need of mankind.
“When God created Adam, he looked at Adam in the Garden of Eden, and he said it is not good for the man to live alone. Adam was in solitary confinement even though he had the whole of the Garden of Eden to himself. So God gave him a soulmate. Humans are naturally social beings and they need that freedom to move about. Quarantine is another name for confinement. Confinement is associated with imprisonment. I remember when we were young if you misbehave, you were sent to your rooms for a number of hours to keep you in solitary confinement”, she explained.
She noted that it was very normal for people to jubilate after being kept in confinement for a long time. “Once the lockdown was lifted, certainly people will jubilate just for the sake of having fresh air. They will come out to be the free human beings that they are expected to be”, she added.
She added that while the atmosphere in Italy after the lockdown was quite different from what happened in Ghana, it could be observed that people were happy to be out again.
The Ambassador, however, advised that Ghanaians should take the Coronavirus very seriously because “the virus is real”.
By: Alberta Dorcas N D Armah