National responses to the COVID-19 pandemic

[446] On 11 March, President Nana Akufo-Addo directed the Minister of Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta, to make the cedi equivalent of $US100 million[447] available to enhance Ghana's COVID-19 preparedness and response plan.

[citation needed] On 15 March, at 10 pm, President Nana Akufo-Addo banned all public gatherings including conferences, workshops, funerals, festivals, political rallies, church activities and other related events to reduce the spread of COVID-19 at a press briefing on the state of COVID-19.

[452] In April 2020, At a press briefing, the Director General of the Ghana Health Service, announced the commencement of local production of nose masks as part of efforts to arrest the spread of the pandemic.

[491][492] A second vaccine trial was launched during mid August 2020 in collaboration with a US Maryland based biotechnology company, Novavax, with funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

[510] Until late 2022, most cases in China were imported from abroad, and several new outbreaks were quickly controlled through intense short-term public health measures, including large-scale testing, contact tracking technology, and mandatory isolation of infected individuals.

[536] Marc Lipsitch, professor of epidemiology at the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health, "analysed air traffic out of the Chinese city at the centre of the outbreak in China and suggested in a report ... that Indonesia might have missed cases" of coronavirus.

[537][538][539] Western diplomats[540][541][542] as well as local[536][543] and international[544][545][546] news outlets postulated that the lack of cases within Indonesia result from inadequate testing and under reporting, as opposed to sheer luck and divine intervention.

[569] Iranians criticized government authorities for proceeding with elections while the disease was spreading and closing secular spaces while keeping shrines open, especially in the Shia holy city of Qom.

[570] Asif Shuja of the National University of Singapore's Middle East Institute suggested that "the fact that Iran reported deaths on the same day as its first infections right before its parliamentary elections 'can compel anyone' that there has been a cover-up".

The strict constraints on testing for the virus by Japanese health authorities have drawn accusations from critics such as Masahiro Kami, a hematologist and director of the Medical Governance Research Institute but not an infectious disease expert, towards Abe of wanting to "downplay the number of infections or patients because of the upcoming Olympics.

'[583][584] Reports that only a small select number of public health facilities were authorized to test for the virus, after which the results could only be processed by five government-approved companies, has created a bottleneck where clinics have been forced to turn away even patients who had high fevers.

[592] But Kentaro Iwata, an infectious disease professor at Kobe University Hospital, said that "the condition aboard was completely chaotic" and "violating all infection control principles".

[602] The class suspension in Metro Manila was extended to 12 April, following the decision of concerned authorities to raise the COVID-19 alert level in the country to Code Red Sublevel 2.

[citation needed] Other salient directives, contained in a resolution adopted by the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID) and announced by the Philippine President on 12 March, at the Heroes Hall in Malacañang Palace,[604] included, the prohibition of mass gatherings that could strain the resources of the host community, imposition of community quarantine over Metro Manila, and encouragement of flexible work arrangements for the private sector among others.

[citation needed] A memorandum containing the guidelines for stringent social distancing measures and the management of COVID-19 in the National Capital Region[605] was issued by Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea by order of the president on 13 March.

[637][638][639] As infection rates have risen outside Korea leading to increases of sick arriving in the country (476 of 9,661 cases were imported as of 30 March), the KCDC implemented stronger infectious disease control measures for travelers coming from overseas as of 1 April.

After seeing Korea successfully lower cases of infection, President Moon Jae-in has engaged in "coronavirus diplomacy" with leaders of other nations, part of which involved exporting test kits to more than 20 countries.

[651][652] On 10 January 2020, ignoring China's insistence on the lack of evidence for human-to-human transmission, Ministry of Health experts stated that they suspected that SARS-CoV-2 was transmitted among people, and accordingly set up the Coronavirus Scientific Advisory Board.

[654][655] In the early hours of 11 March 2020 (UTC+03:00), the Minister of Health Fahrettin Koca announced that a Turkish man who had contracted the virus while travelling in Europe was the country's first confirmed COVID-19 case.

[659] The Ministry of National Education subsequently announced that teachers and staff in schools for students with special needs are able to opt out of in-person teaching if they or their families have a health risk.

[667] Also on 27 March, President Erdoğan announced that all overseas flights were terminated, adding that intercity travel was subject to permission by the state governors, and that places such as picnic areas, forests and historical sites would be closed on the weekend.

Additionally, at a time when people were encouraged to stay at home, the government was criticized for allowing airline passenger transport and tax reductions that support tourism.

[684] Within the next days, health and state authorities issued precautionary guidelines and recommendations, while measures up to that point were taken locally and included the closure of schools and the suspension of cultural events in the affected areas (particularly Ilia, Achaea and Zakynthos).

Movement outside the house is permitted only for specific reasons that include moving to or from the workplace, shopping for food or medicine, going to the bank, visiting a doctor or assisting a person in need of help and walking a pet or exercising outside individually or in pairs.

[723] Italy's government has drawn criticism from scientists and WHO, for its decision to suspend direct flights to mainland China that while sounding "tough" on paper, was ineffective as "people can still arrive from risk areas via indirect routes."

"[citation needed] Italy's government has also been criticised for not testing or enforcing lockdowns sufficiently in some regions,[724] sending mixed messages,[725] and downplaying the severity of the situation.

[737] On 21 May, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon outlined a four-phase "route map" for easing lockdown restrictions in Scotland to take effect from 28 May subject to the number of new cases of COVID-19 continuing to fall.

The positive patient arrived with her husband on Sunday, 1 March without symptoms, at the Juan Santamaría airport, they visited Alajuela and Puntarenas, so investigations were carried out from these areas to follow up on contacts, as well as 152 people traveling on the flight that brought them to the country.

[741] On 15 March, the Ministry of Health made the decision to instruct a total lockdown placing all citizens in quarantine except for those working in healthcare and delivery restaurant and food services.

[767][768] Days before, on 15 March, Bolsonaro received harsh criticism after attending a pro-government demonstration in Brasília on which he had physical contact with more than two hundred people, against the recommendations of his own Minister of Health.