Pressure group OccupyGhana has said before President Nana Akufo-Addo, a few weeks ago, further eased the COVID-19 restrictions imposed on the country to curb the spread of the virus, there had been several deaths which were kept from him.
This situation denied Nana Addo the full picture and complementary data to inform his decision.
“We vehemently disagreed, and we still question the science behind the GHS’ claim that it is verifying the ‘epidemiological condition’ of dead COVID-19 cases”, OG said, adding: “We pointed out that this terminology served nothing but confusion, since the verification team in Accra was not doing any retesting or post mortem”.
“Simply, there is nothing to verify outside a simple phone call to the people on the ground”, OG insisted.
“As we also pointed out, and as the government’s COVID-19 team admitted, several of the deaths then not included in the national total, had occurred some two to three weeks before the President recently, further eased restrictions. To us, that meant that as of the time the President was taking that decision and announcing it, both he and Ghanaians had been denied the full complement of the data and the true picture”, the group noted.
“It is entirely possible that had the full information been made available, the President’s decision and public reaction would have been different. We still consider the excuse of a delay due to a so-called verification, unacceptable and untenable, giving grounds to our expressed suspicion. These delays erode public confidence in the GHS’ data”, OG stressed.