The concerns raised by President Akufo-Addo on the increasing number of active COVID-19 cases in the country and the congratulatory message to US president-elect Joe Biden are some of the leading stories in the Ghanaian press on Monday.
The Graphic reports that President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has lamented the increasing number of active COVID-19 cases in the country.
According to him, the number of daily infections was on the rise with an average of 130 new cases being recorded per day in the last two weeks.
The President in his 18th address to the nation three weeks ago indicated that the number of infections was on the decline with statistics pointing to the fact that the country was on the path towards defeating the virus.
However, in his 19th address to the nation on measures taken to combat the virus on Sunday, President Akufo Addo said: “In recent weeks however, we have observed a gradual trajectory of the virus with an increase in active cases from the 398 cases recorded three weeks ago to 1,139 active cases as at Friday, 6th November. The total number of deaths now stands at 320.
The number of daily infections is on the rise; from an average of 25 new cases per day then to average of 130 new cases per day in the course of the last two weeks.”
He attributed the increasing number of cases to the non-compliance of COVID-19 preventive protocols.
He said the high compliance rate with mask wearing of persons surveyed by the Ghana Health Servive (GHS) in some selected areas of Accra has according to a new survey fallen alarmingly from 44.3 per cent to five per cent
The newspaper says that the Ghanaian government has extended the incentive packages for health workers which was introduced in April in the wake of the Coronavirus disease.
President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo in his 19th address to the nation on measures taken to combat the disease said the incentive package had been extended to the end of 2020.
“This means that health workers will pay no income tax for the month of October, November and December,” the President said.
He added that all frontline health workers as defined by the Ministry of Health would continue to receive additional allowance of 50 percent of basic salary per month for the months of October, November and December.
The President also indicated that the 100-bed Ghana Infectious Disease Centre at the Ga-East Hospital would be opened in the coming days.
He said the centre would be under the management of the Ghana Health Service (GHS).
President Akufo-Addo said although the hospitalisation rates of the Coronavirus
disease was low, it had become necessary to operate the facility as “care for the sick and provision of treatment remains an important aspect of our strategy”.
He added that there would be adequate provision of equipment, medicine an
The Times reports that President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has joined world leaders to congratulate the President-elect of the United States of America (USA), Joe Biden.
In a post on Facebook and Twitter on Saturday, he also on behalf of Ghanaians, congratulated Senator Kamala Harris on becoming the first woman Vice President-elect of the United States.
“It is my sincere hope that President-elect Biden’s tenure of office will be marked by the delivery of unity, security, progress and prosperity to all Americans”, President Akufo-Addo said.
It was President Akufo-Addo’s expectation that over the course of Joe Biden’s presidency, relations between Ghana and the US would continue to grow from strength to strength.
The Ghana-US relations, which dates back to more than six decades, he said, had “over the years, been based on a shared agenda of freedom, development, progress and prosperity”.
GIK/APA