Ghanaian government response to the COVID-19 pandemic

In order to curb the spread of the virus, the government enforced lockdowns, aggressive contact tracing, public bans and social measures such as encouraging the wearing of face masks.

On 12 January 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) confirmed that the novel coronavirus was the cause of a respiratory illness that affected a cluster of people in Wuhan City, Hubei Province, China.

[13] Only Members of the Executive, Legislature and the Judiciary; and some services such as those that were involved in the production, distribution and marketing of food, beverages, pharmaceuticals, medicine, paper and plastic packages, media and telecommunications were exempted from the restrictions.

[14][15] 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.

[17] In accordance with Article 21 of the Ghanaian Constitution, President Akufo-Addo declared various limitations on movement under the recently adopted Imposition of Restrictions Act 1012 of 2020.

[32] On 11 March 2020, President Nana Akufo-Addo asked the Minister of Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta, to make a cedi equivalent of $US100 million[33] available in order to improve Ghana's response plan for the COVID-19 pandemic.

[35] The Finance Minister stated in his report that the Government spent about 54.3 million Ghana cedis to provide cooked and uncooked food to the vulnerable during the 3-week lockdown.

[43] The Minister of Employment and Labor Relations claimed government's intervention in easing of restrictions restored over 2,849 out of the over 11,000 job losses due to the pandemic.

[44] Government established a committee to bring about modalities to implement the National Unemployment Insurance Scheme to help those who lost their jobs during the pandemic.

[45] Government supported entrepreneurs with disability in the Northern, North East and Savannah regions with an amount of GH¢200,000 to help them in their businesses due to the impact of COVID-19.

[47] On 27 July, the government claimed the implementation of the new rate of Talk Tax was to begin in September with the reduction of CST from 9% to 5% to reduce the cost of communication services .

[57] The Minister for Employment and Labor Relations stated an amount of GH¢320 million was spent on health workers as part of the Government's COVID-19 relief package.

[58] On 29 March, the government of Ghana set up a quarantine centre at the Northern Regional capital, Tamale, after the confirmation of 10 new cases of COVID-19 recorded in that part of the country.

[60] In October 2020, the president stated that across Ghana, the government has expanded COVID-19 testing facilities from the initial 2 to 16, which include those of private sector providers.

[71][72] The SolaWash, an automated and mobile hand washing machine powered by solar panels was invented by Richard Kwarteng and his team in Kumasi to fight against the novel coronavirus pandemic.

[82] On 12 August, the Ghana Health Service collaborated with Sambus geospatial to develop a location-intelligence platform for reporting and sharing information on COVID-19 in the country.

[83] On 19 April 2020, It was announced by the President of Ghana in his address to the nation that the partial lockdown that had been imposed three weeks earlier was lifted but the other preventive protocols were still in effect.

[12] Eighteen thousand Veronica Buckets, 800,000 pieces of 200-millilitre sanitizers, 36,000 rolls of tissue paper, 36,000 gallons of liquid soap and 7,200 thermometer guns have also been distributed to schools, according to the President.

[90] The president Nana Akufo-Addo in his address to the nation announced that all nursery, kindergarten, primary, JHS 1, SHS 1 students have had the rest of their academic year postponed till January 2021.

[93] According to the Director of the GHS, children under the five years, air crew and passengers on transit would not undergo testing for COVID-19 at the Kotoka International Airport.

[98] The Ghana Women's Premier League was set to begin in January 2021 after the government placed a ban on all football related activities in March 2020 due to COVID-19.