It is a global pandemic that has overwhelmed almost if not all health-care systems around the world, particularly those of advanced economies.
The one-time magic wand to deal with this pandemic is a vaccine – but even that is said to be at least 12 months away. Until then, world health-care systems have to resort to makeshifts to deal with the increasing number of coronavirus cases.
While busily crafting a biological specimen to neutralise the virus, as well as making tents to receive the spill over from hospitals, measures including those austere enough to alienate people from their close relations had to be enforced, to slow the spread of the virus.
Like many countries around the world, the largest economic zones of Ghana are under a lockdown – a containment measure targeted at “social distancing” people, which effectively slows person-to-person contamination.
So, the very essence of a lockdown is social distancing, which is believed to avoid if not delay/slow the spread of the virus. Â Even if all we do is delay the inevitable, delay is very valuable. Delay spreads cases out over time, preventing the fast-moving pandemic from overwhelming our health-care system.
But the irony here in Ghana is that, a lockdown does not necessarily imply social distancing. The streets of the Central Business District may be empty, but not those in our local communities. It is business as usual in most communities in the lockdown zones.
While at home, you see people in groups engaging in all sorts of activities including playing football, dame, running around, loud arguments, selling and buying food etc.
Our situation is even made more precarious as hundreds of thousands of people scramble for free food distributed by the government -Â a relief package for the destitute.
The least said about our slums and zongos, (where settlements automatically defy the principles of social distancing) the better
So, is the lockdown really achieving the intended result?
Chew on this…
Source: Chris Moses Kodo