The CDC’s Travel Advisory against Ghana is a declaration of hopelessness in government’s ability to handle the crisis – ASEPA

Folks the Center for Disease Control and Prevention(the CDC) in the US has issued a Travel Advisory against Ghana.

https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/travel/notices/covid-4/coronavirus-ghana

For those who don’t understand what a travel advisory means, all the CDC is telling the World is that Ghana is one of the unsafest place to travel to as far as Covid-19 safety is concerned.
They are saying Ghana is too risky to travel to and so people should avoid it as much as they can.

Folks, this is how far President Akufo-Addo has brought us….
Barely a year ago, CSOs and well meaning Ghanaians were on top of their voices screaming against the compilation of a needless new voters register.
We did all the advocacy we could and yet the Government backed EC would not badge.
When you have a Government who is more interested in “rigging” an election than actually protecting the people, this is what you get.

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After subjecting the people into a chaotic new voter registration, Government didn’t see the need to do mass testing of the public to isolate possible infected persons and reduce community spread.

Then came elections with its attendant chaotic collation and still Government did not see the need to do mass testing or random community testing to isolate infected people.

It is these two chaotic exercises in 2020 coupled with a fraudulent testing regime and a redundant contact tracing regime that has skyrocketed Ghana’s cases, putting unprecedented pressure on our ICUs and health facilities.

And yes, this is what has caused the CDC to issue this Travel Advisory against Ghana…
Not just because cases are skyrocketing alone, but the total cluelessness of Government in dealing with the crisis, the ripping off of the already stretched public, the fraudulent testing regime and the total lack of contact tracing which portends nothing but more troubling days ahead for Ghana is what has brought us this far.

A few days ago when the President addressed the Country, it became overly obvious that Government has absolutely no clear-cut strategy to deal with the crisis, the President then resorted to issuing threats of possible lockdown instead as if to throw his hands in despair!
Why won’t the CDC issue a travel advisory against you?

Still missing in the President’s speech, was any plans to do a simple mass or random public or community testing.
Isn’t it quite intriguing that, in spite of all the funds received through the COVID-19 funds and other benevolent sources, Government has still not been able to role out any Government sponsored testing program?
Not even a subsidized one!!

How about the expensive testing regime?
Couldn’t Government have rolled out a subsidized testing program to encourage voluntary testing instead of the rip-off testing regimes that we have the airports and other centers.
How about the fraudulent testing regime?
Where more and more people keep complaining about false test results and extortion from testing officers?

These are the fundamental reasons why the CDC is telling the whole world that Ghana is too risky don’t go there and not just because the cases are merely increasing, the cases are actually increasing almost everywhere!!

We are therefore entreating Government to wake up from its fraudulent roller coaster ride, put the Citizens interest first, put in a mass testing or a subsidized testing program, improve the contact tracing and isolation programs, clamp down on fraudulent testing officers and steer this Country away from the imminent crisis!

Mensah Thompson
Executive Director,ASEPA