The Akufo Addo administration has been forced by the Coronavirus (Covid-19) to ban all foreign travels for its appointees until further notice.
A statement issued directly from the Jubilee House said the travel ban was to curb the appointees from attracting the deadly disease to Ghana from their travels.
“As part of measures to prevent the outbreak of the coronavirus (Covid-19) in Ghana, His Excellency the President of the Republic has directed that all foreign travels by public officials/officers should be temporarily suspended. Only critical travels will be considered,” read a statement signed by the Chief of Staff Akosua Frema Osei-Opare.
The Akufo Addo administration is essentially convinced that if the ban was not imposed, it was just a matter of time for his globetrotting appointees to contract the pandemic and set off a chain of transmission among the upper echelon of the society.
“This directive together with the other measures being pt in place by Government is intended to protect the general public from contracting the virus. Please note and ensure compliance,” the statement concluded.
This is not the first time the Akufo Addo administration had imposed travel restrictions on its appointees. The first such foreign travel restriction was imposed mid-2018, but appointees mostly ignored this directive as the preceding months saw a flurry of foreign travels by government appointees.
However, this time, critics are certain that threat posed by the Covid-19 is definitely going to force adherence to travel restrictions.
Most part of Europe, America and Asia has been ravaged by the rampaging deadly super-flu virus.
Latest data shows that about 120,000 people have been infected and 4,000 have so far died within a few weeks of contracting the disease.
The respiratory virus reportedly escaped from China’s bio-engineering lab in Wuhan around December 2019. But the world only got to hear about the disease in January when the situation got out of hand in China. It quickly spread through major Asian countries and has since transcended continental boundaries, affecting dozens of countries worldwide.
The virus is also grinding many economies to a halt. China’s manufacturing industry has taken a particular hit. The Chinese manufacturing industry is the biggest in the world, supplying markets worldwide.