The call by the Minority in Parliament to place a temporary ban on flights from COVID-19 hotspot countries until the high record of cases of infection in those areas reduce and the goodwill message to workers by the Chief Executive Officer of the Media General Group are some of the leading stories in the Ghanaian press on Monday.
The Graphic reports that the Minority in Parliament has urged the government to place a temporary ban on flights from COVID-19 hotspot countries until the high record of cases of infection in those areas reduce.
It said as stated by the American Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), antigen tests were effective when patient viral loads were high.
That, the Minority group said, implied the antigen tests used at the Kotoka International Airport had the propensity to yield some false negatives, reducing its reliability as an effective screen against the pandemic.
“Due to this, some jurisdictions use real-time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) tests in order to detect patients with early exposures to COVID-19 to improve on the speed of testing.
Addressing a press conference in Parliament yesterday, the Ranking Member on the Select Committee on Health in Parliament, Mr. Kwabena Mintah Akandoh, said Ghana might therefore have imported cases of the virus which were not detected via the antigen tests at the airport, putting the entire nation at risk.
“This risk could have been avoided if government right from the onset had instituted an antigen policy like most other countries to determine when antigen tests are sufficient screens and when to either add on PCR tests or perform PCR tests alone to elucidate the positivity or otherwise of suspected COVID-19 patients.
“The Minority, therefore, demands that as a matter of urgency, the government should formulate and submit copies to Parliament of an antigen policy and implement it within the next few days,” he said.
The newspaper says that the Chief Executive Officer of the Media General Group, Ms Beatrice Agyemang, has urged workers around the world to get creative and innovative in what has now become a fast-changing business world.
One of the most respected business and corporate leaders in Ghana, Ms Agyemang made the call on the occasion of this year’s May Day celebrations.
She highlighted the need for workers to get dynamic and find new ways of doing things now, especially after the key lessons learnt from the new normal the world is witnessing and the devastating impact of the global coronavirus.
“Without a doubt, the global coronavirus has brought various dynamics to doing things now. The question is: What does one need to do to survive the pandemic and keep one’s business going?
“In every emergency, there are always people who will not stop at only being compassionate to help others but will use their creativity to assist those around them to survive and also get their businesses to thrive.
“And we experienced this with the outbreak of the coronavirus around the world. Some businesses had to reorganise to start producing sanitiser, personal protective equipment, medical equipment, and that is very commendable,” she stated.
Ms Agyemang also emphasised the need for workers to focus on their work and not unnecessarily get fixated with titles.
She considers a strong work ethic as very important for people hoping to achieve success in their careers and also embrace principles that guide their work behaviour to produce high-quality work consistently.
“I have observed over the years that most people sometimes do not focus on delivering on their job and getting the needed results. Rather, they spend all their time to concentrate on themselves and working on their personalities, making no time to get the work done. In reality, when you do a great job, it does reflect on your personality and the impact is there to speak volumes,” she stated.
The Times reports that the former Speaker of Parliament, Professor Aaron Michael Oquaye, says the Legal Aid Scheme in Ghana should be re-examined and financed by the state, especially in relation to vulnerable groups such as women, persons with disability.
Prof. Oquaye was speaking at the 16th edition of Re-Akoto Memorial Lectures on “The legacy of Baffour Osei Akoto: A Family Man, a Chief and Statesman” on Wednesday, at the Great Hall of Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi.
His lecture among others, looked at the significance of Baffuor Osei Akoto in the past and contemporary Ghanaian politics with regard to the political tradition he inspired and belonged, adding that Re Akoto Celebrations should open the gateways and ring bells of remembrance that our national motto requires justice to all as the essence of freedom
Baffour was a founding member of the National Liberation Movement in the 1950s which eventually joined forces with other parties to form the United Party and subsequently the New Patriotic Party sought to ensure checks and balances in governance and to put some restraints on the central government.
He added that the country should expand “the parameters of pro-bono cases” as lawyers took principled stance in cases.
Prof. Oquaye said “indeed, every year, we must celebrate those who stood against dictatorship and the one lawyer who boldly defended and upheld the human rights of others until he was arrested under the PDA for his “inhibitive” inclinations, kept chained in prison, deprived of medical attention and finally left to die.”
“An essential ingredient in the political relevance of Baffuor Osei Akoto is the danger in over-concentration of political power at the centre. Incidentally, a lingering problem in Ghanaian politics is that too much power emanates from the Centre, tending to place the stakes too high in elections. This generates undue tension and tension in the body politic not healthy for politics,” he added.
GIK/APA