100,000 Homeless Ghanaians Under threat Amidst Calls for Covid-19 Lockdown

As the pressure on the government to lockdown the country over the Covid-19 pandemic intensifies, it is becoming clear that, over 100,000 homeless people in urban Ghana will be caught in the crossfire of the lockdown.

Ghana’s homeless population is mainly a featured in the big cities, especially Accra and Kumasi.

These street dwellers are in the poorest of the country’s population and therefore a lockdown, which will imply they cannot move about will probably bring to them more trouble than good.

In 2018, up to 66,000 Ghanaians were displaced due to natural disasters and communal violence. Most of them remain in the streets.

Also, out of an urban population of 14million, in Ghana, an estimated 5.5million live in slums according to the Africa Research Institute.

Slum households are usually overcrowded and very unsanitary, conditions that are ideal for the spread of coronavirus which causes the deadly Covid 19 disease.

Even in the case of homes that are not categorized as slum dwellings, a lack of toilets is widely common, forcing residence to share paces of convenience.

So far, the Government has withstood pressure from the likes of the Ghana Medical Association and the Trades Union Congress, to lock down the country but those proposing it point out that Ghana’s Covid-19 profile leaves no doubt that the country should be locked down.

A mercurial rise in the number of infections means in just three days, the country’s infections has ballooned from 21 to 132 with 4 deaths. More infections are expected as doctors keep testing 1030 people who are under mandatory quarantine after travelling into the country from abroad.