A Clinical Microbiologist, Dr Michael Owusu has revealed that the new variant of the Covid-19 virus has been detected amongst children in the country, some as young as five years old.
Speaking on JoyNews’ PM Express Monday, Dr Owusu’s worry is centred on the risk parents and communities at large are likely to face with the highly transmissible new variant.
To prevent the virus from community spread, the microbiologist called on Government to close down schools until the current situation has been properly handled.
“…If you look at the Covid-19 situation two weeks ago, we were recording 200 cases daily which has increased to 700, we had 1, 300 active cases which has now increased to 5,000. So if things are to continue as it is now, then we are likely to have 1,400 new cases daily in the next two weeks and we will have about 10, 000 active cases by then.
“Should this happen, then it will tell you that these interventions may not be working in that case, we may have to trigger the second level of intervention which may include closure of schools, churches and other gatherings,” he stated.
The Director-General of the Ghana Health Service, Dr. Patrick Kumah Aboagye has, however, insisted that schools are safe.
But the Deputy General Secretary of the Ghana Medical Association, Dr Titus Beyuo disagrees with the claim that schools are safe.
He indicated that until a risk assessment is conducted to establish the extent of exposure of the virus in the schools, government cannot make that statement on authority.
“I have a problem with statistics that tells us that because few students have contracted the disease, then the problem in schools is little. Until we have had a systematic way of assessing the burden in the school, we cannot make that conclusive statement,” he emphasized.
President Akufo-Addo in his 21st address announced that schools will reopen on January 15, following the closure of all educational institutions on March 15, 2020.
The closure of schools was part of government’s plans to ensure that the Covid-19 which was spreading at an alarming rate in the country at the time was effectively managed.
