Government Must Fund Mandatory COVID-19 Testing For All Schools and Churches – John Mahama
Government Must Fund Mandatory COVID-19 Testing: Former President John Dramani Mahama has maintained the need for the government to embark on mass testing exercise ahead of the intended easing of restrictions.
The former President says funds accumulated in the COVID-19 account should be able to used to finance the exercise.
School pupils and teachers, congregations of the various churches, according to the leader of the NDC must be made to undergo this mass testing.
“…in the face of the imminent easing of restrictions, let me repeat the call on the government to consider conducting mass testing, at least, at the point of need. What it means is that for instance all students, teachers, and ancillary staff returning to school or church attendants, following the easing of restrictions, should undergo a mandatory COVID-19 test as a safety precaution.
The former President noted, “Government has accumulated enough resources in the name of COVID-19 to be able to fund mass testing, even if it has to rely on private laboratories; for the sake of the life and health of Ghanaians.”
In his latest write-up on the coronavirus situation in the country, the leader of the opposition National Democratic Congress urged the government to be ‘transparent and communicate the full picture of the extent of the disease,’ even as it is important to keep Ghanaians hopeful.
According to John Mahama, the government has been ineffective in its public education attempt.
He says that the government’s communication efforts are rather creating a false impression that the country was doing well in handling the situation.
John Mahama believes that government’s advice that citizens should learn to live with the disease only suggests that one must take charge of his own destiny.
“Government has unfortunately not managed public education on coronavirus efficiently, while the latest communication creates the false impression that all is well with the management and spread of the disease. The advice from the President and other government officials that we should begin to learn to live with the disease suggests that you and I must take our destiny into our own hands as far as COVID-19 is concerned.
“This is coming at a time that public education on the disease has dwindled to the extent that observance of hygiene and distancing protocols, as I indicated earlier, appears to be waning,” the former President added.
Meanwhile, John Mahama is calling on the government to “utilize some of the funds from the Stabilization Fund and the IMF to enhance local production and free distribution of re-usable face masks to especially vulnerable communities and groups”.
–: abcnewsgh.com
