Renowned Nigerian singer Timaya, born Inetimi Alfred Timaya Odon, recently shared a candid account of his challenging journey through drug addiction during the 2020 lockdown.
In an interview with The Beat 99.9 FM in Lagos, the artist, famous for hits like “Dem Mama” and “Bum Bum,” opened up about his encounters with substance abuse.
During the lockdown, Timaya noticed the seemingly perpetual happiness of young individuals residing in his home.
Intrigued by their exuberance, he discovered they were using Molly, a synthetic drug with psychedelic effects.
Curiosity led him to try the substance, triggering both mental and physical repercussions.
Recalling his initial experience, Timaya revealed, “I did not understand myself. I was so happy that I dashed all the money in my pocket.”
This newfound happiness, fueled by the drug, resulted in significant weight loss and a distorted sense of well-being.
Timaya acknowledged the dangerous path he was treading, emphasising the importance of finding natural happiness rather than relying on substances.
The consequences of his addiction were severe, nearly costing him his life and causing the loss of valuable opportunities and relationships.
Timaya admitted that breaking free from the grip of drugs was an arduous struggle.
Despite the challenges, Timaya chose to embark on his journey to recovery without seeking professional rehabilitation.
Reflecting on his triumph over addiction, he asserted, “Breaking off from drugs was hell, it was a tough fight.” Today, Timaya proudly stands as a testament to resilience, having successfully overcome his struggles and redirected his focus towards his music and family.”
Following the Cabinet Office‘s discovery of fresh evidence of alleged lockdown violations, Boris Johnson’s future has once more been turned over to the police.
According to a report in The Times today, the former prime minister, 58, reportedly hosted friends and family at Chequers between June 2020 and May 2021.
As part of an investigation into how his administration responded to the coronavirus outbreak, Johnson’s government-funded lawyers discovered proof of the trips in his ministerial diary.
The alleged get-togethers in Chequers, an official country residence for British prime ministers, were ‘clearly a breach of the rules’, a source told the newspaper.
His legal team decided they were duty-bound to raise the potential breaches of lockdown rules to the Cabinet Office, according to The Times.
The Cabinet Office, under the terms of the civil service code, should ‘report evidence of criminal or unlawful activity’ to the authorities.
It’s the latest accusation of rule-breaking for the already scandal-scarred Tory (Picture: PA)
A Cabinet Office spokesman told The Times: ‘Information came to light during the process of preparing evidence for submission to the Covid inquiry.
‘It was identified as part of the normal disclosure review of potentially relevant documents being undertaken by the legal team for inquiry witnesses.
‘In line with obligations in the civil service code, this material has been passed to the relevant authorities and it is now a matter for them.’
Johnson and his wife, Carrie, stayed at Chequers during the first lockdown when shelter-in-place rules closed people’s front doors shut and shuttered businesses. He recuperated from Covid-19 there in April 2020.
A spokesman for the former prime minister said: ‘Some abbreviated entries in Mr Johnson’s official diary were queried by the Cabinet Office during preparation for the Covid Inquiry.
Among the gatherings, Johnson (left) attended a leaving gathering for two officials, involving 15-20 people, in 10 Downing Street (Picture: PA)
‘Following an examination of the entries, Mr Johnson’s lawyers wrote to the Cabinet Office and privileges committee explaining that the events were lawful and were not breaches of any Covid regulations.’
This new revelation adds to the already chaotic drama that began in November 2021 when three social gatherings held in Downing Street during lockdown came to light.
Fearing his political unravelling, Johnson told Parliament the following month that Number 10 never violated any coronavirus guidelines.
But Sue Gray, a former senior civil servant, saw differently. In a major report, she painted a picture of ‘excessive’ workplace drinking in Downing Street, citing 16 social parties.
Late-night booze-filled parties with wine bottles scattered around and a leaving do with a karaoke machine and even a dust-up between two staffers were among the raucous gatherings described by Gray.
Others included a bring-your-own-booze cocktail party in May 2020 and a basement bash held one day before Prince Phillip’s funeral in which a swing was broken and a staffer was sent to the Co-op with a suitcase to fetch more booze.
‘There were failures of leadership and judgment by different parts of No. 10 and the Cabinet Office at different times,’ Gray wrote in the report released May last year.
Johnson’s ministerial diary showed friends swung by his grace and favour house Chequers on several occasions (Picture: WPA Pool/Getty Images)
‘Some of the events should not have been allowed to take place. Other events should not have been allowed to develop as they did.’
The Met issued 126 fines relating to eight gatherings in and around Downing Street and Whitehall, some of which Johnson attended.
Johnson was among those fined – for attending his 56th birthday party on June 19 20202 – making him the first premier to ever be found to have broken the law.
But in March this year, he admitted that he had misled the House of Commons but stressed that it was what he believed at the time.
He told Parliament’s privileges committee, which is investigating whether he lied to MPs about violating lockdown rules, he did not do so ‘intentionally or recklessly’.
Johnson said none of his most-trusted aides warned him before or after that the gatherings violated social-distancing restrictions. It is up to the privileges committee to decide whether such rules should have been obvious, regardless of what his staff told him.
Johnson’s legacy is one of ‘lying’, a campaign group said (Picture: ZUMAPRESS.com / MEGA)
The committee has been informed about the alleged entries in Johnson’s diary.
MPs are expected to publish their potentially make-or-break report on whether the former Tory leader broke lockdown rules next month.
If the committee rules he misled Parliament, Johnson may be suspended.
A ban of 10 days or more could all but extinguish any possibility that he could revive his political career as it would instead ignite a by-election in his seat.
He has been an MP for Uxbridge and South Ruislip in north-west London since 2015 but holds it on the razor-thin majority of 7,210.
For Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice, a campaign group consisting of bereaved people, Johnson must ‘quietly step back from public life’.
‘These revelations make a grim mockery of Boris Johnson’s claims that he didn’t break his own lockdown rules,’ the group tweeted.
‘His legacy is one of lying, complete contempt for the ordinary people he was supposed to protect, and above all, presiding over the deaths of nearly 200,000 people,’ it added.
‘If he had any respect he’s quietly step back from public life and reflect on the pain and suffering he has inflicted.’
A study suggests that January 2021 was nine to ten months after Covid-related lockdowns were imposed
Longer lockdowns resulted in fewer pregnancies according to the study
The decline was more common in countries where health systems struggled.
Lithuania and Romania saw the biggest drops – at 28% and 23% respectively – while Sweden, which had no lockdown, saw normal birth rates, according to findings published in the journal Human Reproduction.
Researchers say the findings may lead to “long-term consequences on demographics, particularly in western Europe where there are aging populations”.
“The longer the lockdowns the fewer pregnancies occurred in this period, even in countries not severely affected by the pandemic,” said Dr Leo Pomar, a midwifesonographer at Lausanne University Hospital, who wrote the study.
“We think that couples’ fears of a health and social crisis at the time of the first wave of Covid-19 contributed to the decrease in live births nine months later.”
Social distancing measures fears related to the virus, and the social and economic crisis caused as a result may be “indirect factors that played a role in the decision of couples to postpone pregnancies”, the report states.
England and Wales saw a 13% drop in January 2021, compared with January 2018 and 2019 – while the number of babies born in Scotland decreased by 14%.
France and Spain saw a 14% and 23% drop respectively.
In March 2021, births returned to a similar rate to the pre-pandemic level, corresponding to a rebound nine to 10 months after the end of lockdowns, the study says.
But researchers say that this rebound does not appear to havecompensated for the drop in birth rates two months before.
“The fact that the rebound in births does not seem to compensate for the decrease in January 2021 could have long-term consequences on demographics, particularly in western Europe where there are aging populations,” Dr Pomar said.
More than 2,000 tourists have been stranded in a Chinese coastal city after a surge in coronavirus cases.
Officials in Beihai locked down urban areas and ordered the mass testing of its 1.9m residents over the weekend.
It comes as concerns grow about the impact of China’s “zero-Covid” policy on the world’s second largest economy.
Last week, official figures showed the country’s economy shrank in the second quarter of this year as Covid-19 restrictions hit firms and consumers.
Beihai, which is a popular summer destination in China’s southern Guangxi region, recorded more than 450 infections in the five days to 16 July.
While that level of cases may seem low by international standards it is considered high under the Chinese government’s approach to the pandemic.
On Sunday, Beihai’s local government said tourists who had not been in contact with anyone who had contracted the virus, or visited medium or high-risk areas, would be allowed to leave if they showed a negative Covid-19 test.
The rest must stay in the city and be quarantined, officials told a news conference.
One tourist on holiday in Beihai expressed her frustration in a comment on the social media platform Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok, which has received more than 2,700 likes.
“I just finished my 3 months lockdown in Shanghai. I just came to Beihai for a breath of fresh air, did I annoy anyone?” she said.
Elsewhere in China authorities are stepping up measures to combat rising Covid cases.
On Monday, Shanghai’s local government said it would require residents in more than half of its 16 districts to be tested for the virus, after holding similar tests last week.
It is one of several large Chinese cities that are tackling new clusters of infections.
The Covid situation in China has “worsened slightly on a national level” over the past week, Japanese banking giant Nomura said in a note on Monday.
“Based on our own survey, 41 cities are currently implementing full or partial lockdowns or some kind of district-based control measures, which involve stringent measures restricting the mobility of local residents,” analysts Ting Lu, Jing Wang and Harrington Zhang said.
“These 41 cities make up 18.7% of China’s population and 22.8% of China’s GDP [Gross Domestic Product],” they added.
On Friday, government data showed the country’s economy contracted sharply in the second quarter of this year as widespread coronavirus lockdowns had a major impact on businesses and consumers.
GDP fell by 2.6% in the three months to the end of June from the previous quarter.
Large cities across China, including Shanghai, were put into full or partial lockdowns during this period as the country continues to pursue its zero-Covid policy.
GDP or Gross Domestic Product is one of the most important ways of showing how well, or badly, an economy is doing.
It’s a measure of all the activity of companies, governments and individuals in an economy.
As world governments spent the majority of 2020 trying to contain the coronavirus pandemic, Collins dictionary on Monday made “lockdown” its word of the year.
Collins said the word, which it defines as “the imposition of stringent restrictions on travel, social interaction and access to public spaces” was chosen because it is a “unifying experience for billions of people across the world.”
Six out of 10 shortlisted words were related to the pandemic including “coronavirus,” “self-isolate” and “social distancing.”
More than 50.2 million cases of the novel coronavirus have been recorded worldwide, and over 1.2 million people have died, according to the World Health Organization.
Collins said it registered over 250,000 usages of “lockdown” during 2020, against only 4,000 the previous year.
Other words that made the shortlist are TikToker, which Collins defines as “a person who regularly shares or appears in videos on TikTok,” a video-sharing app.
The word “BLM,” short for “Black Lives Matter,” also made the shortlist.
Collins defines it as “a movement that campaigns against racially motivated violence and oppression. BLM started as an online movement sparked by the killing of unarmed teenager Trayvon Martin in 2012 in the United State.
The coronavirus pandemic has since March undoubtedly had a devastating impact on households, businesses, and the local economies in Ghana, and the world at large.
With almost every sector experiencing change of a sort, the pandemic gave way to more negative effects than positive.
The most recent survey conducted by the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS), tagged the Local Economies Tracker, proved that the three-week partial lockdown in Accra and Kumasi during the early times of the pandemic paved way for more criminal activities to take place.
The report indicated that localities in locked down districts experienced the highest increase in overall crime rate and other forms of crime with a percentage of 47.1.
Overall, three out of ten communities, that is 34.1% of localities in the country saw an increase in crime during the lockdown period.
Theft and burglary were the two most common crimes, with 31.4% and 13.1% respectively. This was followed by an increase in domestic violence (3.7%) and assaults (3.1%) in communities.
Government Statistician, Prof Samuel Kobina Annim, throwing more light on the figures stated that, “Clearly, the evidence pointed to the fact that as a result of COVID-19, there was an upsurge in crime across all the three different districts. Specifically, if you put all these three districts together, at least a third of the localities in these districts indicate that there has been an increase in crime.â€
“The district that suffered the most as a result of COVID-19 from the perspective of crime is locked down districts and if you cut down on all the components of crime, that is, theft, burglary, violence, assault and murder, we see that the locked down districts was the hardest hit. Specifically, we had close to 50% of localities in locked down districts indicating that. Of the different types of crime from theft to murder, theft was the highest across all the three districts.â€
The COVID-19 Local Economies Tracker was conducted on a total of 2,770 localities in the country from May to June 2020.
The districts in the various regions were segmented into three domains; that is, the locked-down districts which include 40 districts, border districts made up of 47 districts, and other districts which do not fall into any of these categories.
The Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta has revealed that spent government ¢54.3 million on cooked meals distributed during the 21-day lockdown in Accra and Kumasi.
According to him, ¢50.2 million was also transferred to over 400,000 most-vulnerable individuals under the Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty (LEAP) Programme.
Giving a breakdown in his Mid-year Budget review to Parliament Thursday, he said the Gender Ministry provided 1,827,581 packed hot meals while the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO) gave out 917,142 packs to the old and less privileged persons in the affected areas.
“In collaboration with Faith-Based Organizations, Government also distributed dry food packages to about 470,000 families.
“Let me extend my deepest gratitude to the Faith-based organisations for this unique partnership with government and may the Lord count this as righteousness for the FBOs and government,†he said.
In April this year, government embarked on an exercise to provide food for underprivileged persons in parts of the country that are under lockdown.
The package was targeted at some 400,000 individuals and homes in the affected areas of the restrictions imposed by President Nana Akufo-Addo in his bid to stop the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic.
However, a few days into the exercise, the government was accused of distributing the food and other relief items on a partisan basis choosing members of the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) over non-members. Government has since denied that claim.
Giving a review of government expenditure in that regard, the Finance Minister said, “Mr Speaker, the support to households, in terms of supply of dry food packs and hot cooked meals cost Government GH¢54.3 million to enable them to mitigate the impact of the pandemic.
“This was in addition to an amount of ¢50.2 million transferred to the 400,000 most-vulnerable individuals under the Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty (LEAP) Programmeâ€.
Kenya’s military has denied putting any of its barracks under partial lockdown amid media reports that dozens of soldiers are being treated at an isolation centre for Covid-19.
Kenya Defence Forces spokesperson Colonel Zipporah Kioko told the BBC that movement in and out of barracks had not been restricted, but measures had been put in place to protect the soldiers.
The measures include mass testing, routine checks of body temperature, wearing of face masks and hand sanitation points in all barracks.
Local television station Citizen TV on Sunday quoted unnamed sources as saying that one soldier had died from Covid-19 and dozens were being treated at an isolation centre.
It reported that Kahawa barracks in the capital, Nairobi, had been placed under the restriction of movement.
Col Kioko promised to give a detailed statement later on any coronavirus infections among soldiers.
Kenya has so far confirmed 4,738 coronavirus cases from 140,012 samples tested. Health Minister Mutahi Kagwe on Sunday warned that the rising numbers could soon stretch the country’s health facilities.
Zimbabwe’s security forces sealed the country’s major cities without notice amid claims of plots to topple President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s government.
Armed soldiers and police set up checkpoints on major roads in Harare, Bulawayo and Kwekwe beginning Monday.
Government buses – the only mode of public transport allowed under a lockdown to stop the spread of Covid-19- were being forced to drop off passengers at the check points.
They were only allowed to proceed with health workers and members of security forces.
The government has issued conflicting statements on the heightened security clampdown, but President Mnangagwa’s spokesman George Charamba said it was meant to stop an uprising.
“The state decided on a lockdown last week acting on the basis of information and threats, which civilians will never know unless informed,” Mr Charamba said.
On the other hand, lnformation minister Monica Mutsvangwa said the military activities were linked to the ongoing lockdown to slow down the spread of coronavirus.
“As much as our president has opened the economy, we will make sure that we adhere to the containment measures, otherwise the disease will spread,” Mrs Mustvangwa said.
“We are still telling our people to stay at home and only go out when necessary.
“What the police are doing is in line with what the (Covid-19) taskforce put in place and we are singing from the same hymn book.”
Army spokesman Overson Mugwisi said the military was only helping police to enforce lockdown regulations.
The military activities also coincided with threats of protests by civil servants over salary cuts.
In Harare, health workers from one of the largest referral hospitals on Wednesday staged a peaceful protest over poor work conditions.
Unions representing other government workers also threatened to roll out protests in the coming days. A week ago security chiefs issued a statement disassociating themselves from alleged rumours of an ‘imminent’ coup.
The military said the rumours were being spread by members of the former regime of the late Robert Mugabe and the opposition.
President Mnangagwa’s government is under increasing pressure to deal with a worsening economic situation characterised by raging inflation.
Zimbabwe’s inflation surged to 785.55 percent year-on-year in May from 765.57 percent the previous month as the government grapples with a weakening currency.
As of Wednesday, Zimbabwe had recorded 391 Covid-19 cases with four deaths.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky says he has been fined for violating the country’s lockdown rules.
Zelensky said this happened after he visited a cafe in the central city of Khmelnytsky on 3 June.
His office later released a photo of Zelensky sipping coffee in the cafe – although a ban on catering services indoors was still in effect at the time. The president was also without a face mask.
“They did the right thing,” the president said, referring to the fine – but without revealing how much he had to pay.
Zelensky also said he had even considered at one point getting deliberately infected with COVID-19 to show Ukrainians that the danger was real.
Mr Christopher Kudzo Galenkui, Assemblyman for Wumenu Electoral Area in the Adaklu District has cautioned the citizenry against ‘stampeding’ President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo to lift restrictions meant to contain COVID-19 in the country.
“If we stampede the President and he lifts the ban now, there will be
calamity in the country,” Mr Galenkui said in an interview with the Ghana
News Agency.
He said there was no need to rush in lifting the restrictions, when
COVID-19 positive cases were on the increase.
Mr Galenkui said what the country needed now was God’s divine intervention
and observance of all safety protocols.
Reverend Samuel Amegboe, Awudome Tsito Area Head of Assemblies of God
Church also said the country’s borders should remain closed to avoid the
influx of people from neighbouring countries some of whom could be
potential carriers of the virus.
He, however said apart from re-opening of schools, the ban on other social
gatherings should be lifted.
Center for Ethical Governance and Administration (CEGA) has called on President Akufo-Addo not to ease restriction as the number of Coronavirus cases has surged to over 7000.
According to CEGA, government should rather lockdown the entire country completely and comprehensively for 10 days and use the period to conduct mass or random testing in order to substantially contain the disease before any consideration.
In a press statement, CEGA stated that “In this regard, we urge the President and all state institutions including the Electoral Commission of Ghana and the National Identification Authority not to be motivated by any non-health considerations to undertake any mass gathering activities to recklessly jeopardize the lives of Ghanaians.â€
“We call on His Excellency the President to rather lock down the entire country completely and comprehensively for 10 days and use the period to conduct mass or random testing in order to substantially contain the disease before any consideration can be given to ease the restrictions on social or physical distancing and other hygienic protocols meant to protect the lives of Ghanaians.â€
Below is the full statement
CENTER FOR ETHICAL GOVERNANCE AND ADMINISTRATION (CEGA)
WORDS OF CAUTION TO PRESIDENT AKUFO-ADDO ON COVID-19
FROM CEGA
In a few days time, the President of the Republic and Commander In Chief of the Ghana Armed Forces, President Akufo-Addo will address the nation on his policy direction on Covid-19 situation in Ghana.
So far there are mixed apprehensions among sections of the Ghanaian society on whether or not the President should take the unchartered course of easing the restrictions imposed under Executive Instruments including easing the ban on social and political gatherings.
Undoubtedly, these measures were suprisingly implemented without serious official commitment to enforcement. And the measures appear not to have been able to contain and or prevent the vertical spread of the pandemic in Ghana.
Strangely enough, and in the midst of rising number of cases of the pandemic, various interest groups such as Religious organisations, Educational institutions and business communities were mounting pressure on His Excellency the President to ease the restrictions.
These parochial interest groups have adduced one reason or the other as to why the President should look towards the direction of easing the social and political restrictions currently in force.
On one extreme and worrisome end is the immense political pressure being mounted by the President’s own political party, the NPP to ease the restrictions in order to afford them the opportunity to conduct their primaries to elect their parliamentary candidates, and go to Congress to confirm the President and his Vice President for the Party’s 2020 ticket.
In the midst of all these contending and confusing interests is the vexed question of the restrictions being eased to enable the National Identification Authority (NIA) to proceed to the Eastern Region to continue with the registration of people for the issuance of ECOWAS Identity Card.
As these apparent parochial interests play up, there has not been any due cognisance of the rising numbers of positive cases in the fast spreading Covid-19 epidemic in the country.
At the time of going to Press on 29th May, 2020, Ghana has recorded 7,616 Covid-19 infection cases.
Given the ferocious nature of the spread of this deadly pandemic, the CEGA strongly urges the Pressident to err on the side of caution and be mindful of the fact that the lives of over 30million Ghanaians depend on what decisions he takes and announces on his next address to the nation.
The President has often been quoted as saying “we can bring our economy back but we cannot bring back lost lives”
During the recent Heads of State Virtual Summit on the pandemic, His Excellency the President is on record to have profoundly advised his fellow heads of state not to be swayed to follow examples of other countries, but rather to take decisions based on their own country specific conditions and circumstances.
Given our soaring number of the epidemic, in addition to the position taken by the Ghana Medical Association (GMA) and other health professionals and experts against easing of restrictions, the CEGA is of the strongest view that easing the restrictions under the EI 64 will not be in the best interest of the people in the country.
In this regard, we urge the President and all state institutions including the Electoral Commission of Ghana and the National Identification Authority not to be motivated by any non-health considerations to undertake any mass gathering activities to recklessly jeopardize the lives of Ghanaians.
We call on His Excellency the President to rather lock down the entire country completely and comprehensively for 10 days and use the period to conduct mass or random testing in order to substantially contain the disease before any consideration can be given to ease the restrictions on social or physical distancing and other hygienic protocols meant to protect the lives of Ghanaians.
We advice this, because any other decision to the contrary will amount to reckless disregard for the lives of Ghanaians.
Ghanaian lives must matter more to the President and all than Ghanaian votes.
Signed:
Dr. Pius Essandoh
Director of Health
0246141460
Mike Aflu
0500349077
Mark Takyi-Banson
0556532767
Junior minister Douglas Ross has resigned after Dominic Cummings’ defense of his trip to County Durham during the coronavirus lockdown.
The Scotland Office minister said the senior aide’s view of the government guidance was “not shared by the vast majority of people”.
Mr Cummings has explained why he drove 260 miles in March from his home to his parents’ farm with his wife and child.
No 10 said the prime minister regretted Mr Ross’ decision to stand down.
In a statement announcing his resignation, Mr. Ross, who remains Tory MP for Moray, said: “While the intentions may have been well-meaning, the reaction to this news shows that Mr Cummings interpretation of the government advice was not shared by the vast majority of people who have done as the government asked.”
“I have constituents who didn’t get to say goodbye to loved ones; families who could not mourn together; people who didn’t visit sick relatives because they followed the guidance of the government.
“I cannot in good faith tell them they were all wrong and one senior adviser to the government was right.”
A No 10 spokesman said: “The prime minister would like to thank Douglas Ross for his service to government and regrets his decision to stand down as parliamentary undersecretary of state for Scotland.”
Mr Cummings has faced calls to resign after it emerged he had driven his child and ill wife from London to County Durham during lockdown.
At a news conference in the garden of 10 Downing Street on Monday afternoon, he said he did not regret his actions. and believed he acted reasonably and legally.
On the subject of why he then drove his family to the town of Barnard Castle – 15 days after he had displayed symptoms – Mr Cummings said he was testing his eyesight to see if he could make the trip back down to London. He explained that he had experienced some eyesight problems during his illness.
Douglas Ross backed Boris Johnson to be Tory leader and is not one of those in the party seen as hostile to his style of government.
So this resignation is a blow – and could point to wider discontent.
There is a Scottish subplot – the Scottish Tories have been accused of hypocrisy for demanding Scotland’s chief medical officer resign then staying quiet about Dominic Cummings.
Mr Ross’s reasons for resigning are scathing.
He says he cannot tell his constituents in good faith that they were wrong to miss funerals and other family events, but Mr Cummings was right.
He says he has listened to his constituents and resigned. The question now is whether other Tory MPs are continuing to get the same feedback.
Labour’s shadow Scottish Secretary Ian Murray said Mr Ross had done the “decent thing” by resigning.
“He understands that it’s not acceptable to have one rule for Boris Johnson’s closest adviser, another for everybody else,” he said.
The SNP’s Westminster leader Ian Blackford said he respected Mr Ross for taking the “difficult decision” to resign and called for Mr Cummings to be removed from his post “without further delay”.
“This issue transcends politics. It is about protecting trust and confidence in the public health advice,” he said in a tweet.
Opposition MPs are meeting to discuss their next steps in deciding how to hold Boris Johnson and his senior aide to account.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s government was hit by its first resignation on Tuesday over the controversy surrounding top aide Dominic Cummings’ cross-country trip during the coronavirus lockdown.
Undermining attempts by ministers to try and move on from the crisis which has dominated British politics for days, Douglas Ross, a minister for Scotland, quit in protest.
“I have constituents who didn’t get to say goodbye to loved ones; families who could not mourn together; people who didn’t visit sick relatives because they followed the guidance of the government,” he said in a Twitter statement announcing his departure.
“I cannot in good faith tell them they were all wrong and one senior advisor to the government was right.”
He added that Cummings’ interpretation of government rules was “not shared by the vast majority of people”.
The resignation will pile more pressure on Cummings, who held an extraordinary press conference Monday to justify driving his wife and young son on a 264-mile (425-kilometre) trip from London to Durham in the northeast of England during the height of the coronavirus crisis.
Lack of credibility
Not long after Ross quit, Harriet Baldwin joined a growing list of Conservative MPs calling on Cummings to resign.
Tory party grandee Michael Heseltine told Sky News that “the lack of credibility” in Cummings’ version of events was “damaging the government”.
Some members of the clergy have also called on him to stand down as well as opposition party members, who will meet later today regarding the crisis.
Downing Street said it “regrets” the decision by Ross.
The resignation came after a cabinet heavyweight defended Cummings and said the controversial aide did not break the law.
Michael Gove, Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, said Cummings had acted reasonably in driving from London to Durham and then taking a separate journey to a local beauty spot, Barnard Castle, to — as he claimed — test his eyesight.
“What’s clear is that he didn’t break the law, he didn’t break the rules, he sought to protect his family and he also sought to ensure that the risk of anyone in his family infecting anyone else was absolutely minimised,” Gove told the BBC on Tuesday.
Cummings drove to his parents’ home in Durham after feeling ill because he and his wife, who was also feeling unwell, needed possible back-up childcare for their young son.
Despite calls for him to resign, Cummings has so far resisted and instead defended his actions.
He told reporters he had acted “reasonably and legally”. The prime minister called Cummings’ actions “plausible”.
Also on Tuesday, the Office for National Statistics said the number of deaths in Britain “involving” the coronavirus had risen above 46,000, far higher than the 36,914 deaths officially confirmed in the government’s count.
Restaurants and cafes across Greece opened ahead of schedule Monday as the country prepared to launch a shortened tourism season vital to its economy.
But with social distancing rules limiting businesses to around 50 percent capacity, and only outdoor tables allowed, many owners questioned the wisdom of reopening after a lockdown of over two months.
“We have to disinfect everything all the time… we’d have to hire someone to clean up and keep track of the customers… but are unable to do that,” cafe owner Vangelis Daskalopoulos told AFP in Athens.
“I don’t know how we’re going to manage,” he said, adding that he was torn between his fear of the virus and the need to keep his business running.
In cafes like his, a mandatory minimum distance of between 70 cm (28 inches) to 1.7 meters (5.5 feet) between seats is required, and a maximum of six seated customers per table is allowed.
Despite the misgivings of some like Daskalopoulos, patrons were happy for the chance socialise in cafes again.
“I’m thrilled to break the isolation of recent months and reconnect with friends,” said pensioner Giorgos Karavatsanis.
“The cafe in Greece has a social dimension, it’s where the heart of the district beats,” he said.
But some three in 10 cafes or restaurants were predicted to stay closed out of fear of slow business, Nikos Nifoudis of the Thessaloniki Catering Initiative told Athens News Agency over the weekend
“The sector is very anxious to see how returning to business will play out… no one can predict how confident customers are to return to cafes and restaurants,” he said.
Flights to resume
Eateries were originally slated to open June 1, but the slow spread of the pandemic in Greece allowed the date to be moved forward.
The country of 11 million has so far recorded fewer than 180 coronavirus deaths.
Since May 4, Greece has progressively opened tourism-related businesses following a lockdown imposed in March to stave off an economic contraction that could reach 13 percent of output this year.
Paid beaches opened on May 16, while ferry travel to the islands was permitted on Monday. Year-round hotels are to resume operations on June 1, followed by seasonal hotels on June 15.
Flights into Athens will restart on June 15, and to the rest of Greece’s regional and island airports on July 1.
But Daskalopoulos is worried about the risks incoming travellers may pose.
“People will come from countries that have a greater number of infections (than Greece’s) and will not even be checked,” he said.
The EU has said holidaymakers could be asked to wear face masks on planes, respect social distancing on the beach and even book slots to use hotel pools.
Greece had initially wanted incoming tourists to submit to tests at least 72 hours before travel, but Brussels frowned at the suggestion.
Athens now says it will not require travellers to undergo virus testing or quarantine, but sample tests will be carried out for epidemiological purposes.
Restaurants were shuttered on March 14, two days after Greece recorded its first COVID-19 death, with only takeout food and delivery allowed.
Austria’s President Alexander Van der Bellen has apologised after staying at a restaurant beyond the Coronavirus-related closing time of 23:00.
He remained at the restaurant in the capital, Vienna, until after midnight.
Mr Van der Bellen, 76, said he had lost track of the time while speaking with friends at the Italian restaurant in the centre of the city.
Austria was one of the first countries in Europe to follow Italy in imposing a strict lockdown.
It was also one of the first to begin easing its restrictions. Gatherings of up to 10 people have been allowed since the start of May, and public parks, small shops, DIY stores and garden centres have been open since last month.
“I’m sincerely sorry. It was a mistake,” Mr Van der Bellen said.
“I went out for the first time since the lockdown with two friends and my wife,” he wrote on Twitter. “We then lost track of the time while chatting.”
The president was spotted by police on the outside dining area of the restaurant shortly after midnight on Sunday, local media report.
But the government’s latest rules say restaurants and cafes, which were allowed to reopen last week, must close no later than 23:00.
The restaurant could be fined for a breach, but Mr Van der Bellen said he would “take responsibility” if the owner suffers any losses as result of the incident.
“We closed after a last round of drinks on time at 23:00, as required by law,” the owner told the Krone newspaper.
He said he had thought that customers were allowed to stay on the terrace beyond that time if they wished.
Results from a poll conducted by GhanaWeb on whether the government should impose another lockdown in the country indicate that 55.14% representing 381 votes were in favour of another lockdown to ease the spread of COVID-19.
Meanwhile, 40.96% representing 283 voted against the idea of any further restrictions.
In the heat of this discussion, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo on Sunday, May 24, 2020, indicated that plans are underway to further ease the coronavirus restrictions adding that, “we have to find a way back, but in safety, for we cannot be under these restrictions forever.â€
A study conducted by GhanaWeb on the impact of coronavirus on businesses proved that the beauty industry, event organizers, private school owners, fashion designers, among other service providers have been greatly hit by the Coronavirus crisis. Thus the need to ease the restrictions in other to save these businesses.
Right from the time government lifted the 3-week partial lockdown in some parts of the country, the move has been greeted with diverse reactions.
To a larger section of Ghanaians, the increasing number of coronavirus cases require stricter measures to halt the spread of the virus. Some citizens, on the other hand, believe the virus does not exist.
The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Leyden Educational Consultancy based in London, Dr James Owusu, is calling on President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo to speed up processes leading to the reopening of schools.
According to Dr Owusu, the longer the children stay at home, the more it affects their mental health.
He said research has revealed that the more children stay at home without going to school affects their way of thinking, causes frustration and impacts negatively on their mental wellbeing.
Dr Owusu said when children stay at home for long without going to school, it is a great disadvantage, especially to the deprived ones.
“Currently in Ghana, more than 70% of children cannot get access to internet learning or even have computers for learning, hence are always frustrated,†he stated.
He said the government should engage in training teachers who can detect the psychological behaviour of children when schools reopen in order to help them to deal with their mental behaviour.
The educational consultant said the government could start the reopening in phases such as opening nursery one, primary one to primary six first because the rate of Covid-19 spread among children is relatively low.
He added that junior high schools (JHS 3) and senior high schools (SHS 3) could be added because they were at the transition levels with serious text-tracking and tracing so that those with the disease could be easily identified.
“We can also bring back the shift system so instead of a class of 40, schools can take 15 to ensure social distancing and again with strict regular hand washing,†he suggested.
“This is a time of creativity with sharp thinking and we should not copy blindly because the USA and the UK are opening schools but rather gradually.â€
He said there are risk factors in every situation and so the government must focus on text-tracking and tracing to build confidence in both students and parents.
Dr Owusu said the government must ensure that every school has a risk assessment by reducing the various classes to at least, 15 pupils, encourage outdoor learning, ensure teachers wear PPE or nose masks and pupils or students as well.
The court case involving Apostle Kofi Nkansah Sarkodie, the man who defied a Covid-19 ban on public gathering has been adjourned to June 11.
The Kumasi-based pastor and three others are facing the Asokwa District Court for unlawful assembly, after they held a church service at the Open Arms Ministries at North Suntreso in the Ashanti Regional capital.
At a third court sitting on Tuesday, May 19, prosecution prayed for more time to allow it to hold discussions with the office of the Attorney General on “whether to maintain or amend the charges against the suspects.â€
“So we pray for adjournment so we make our position clear to the courtâ€, the court heard.
The court presided over by Rosemarie Afua Asante (Mrs) granted the request and adjourned the case to June 11, 2020.
Plans in the UK to ease the lockdown are being overshadowed by claims that an aide to Prime Minister Boris Johnson broke the lockdown rules.
In March, Dominic Cummings drove 260 miles from London so his parents could help with childcare – Cummings’ wife and later Cummings himself both had to self-isolate with virus symptoms.
He also later drove around 30 miles from his temporary home in County Durham, apparently after his 14-day self-isolation.
Boris Johnson has defended his top aide, insisting he acted “responsibly, legally and with integrity”.
The prime minister is this week expected to set out details of plans to lift restrictions. At a news conference on Sunday, he already confirmed the phased reopening of England’s primary schools will begin on 1 June.
Outspoken football administrator Takyi Arhin could not hide displeasure with the government over the exclusion of football clubs from its Coronavirus relief package.
The government on Wednesday announced a financial package to cushion businesses and enterprises affected by the lockdown.
Several businesses and institutions have been closed down indefinitely with workers told to stay at home as the country intensifies efforts to stop the spread of the deadly novel virus.
The football fraternity was not spared. Clubs have suspended camps until further notice, but are still expected to pay their players, coaches and other workers.
But the Ghana FA plea to government to be considered for the stimulus funds to be shared for organisations that have been hit by the crisis was unsuccessful as the National Board for Small Scale Industries (NBSSI) in charge of distributing the package announced that football clubs were not factored.
“What sin has football people committed that we are not part of the package,” Arhin quizzed on Happy FM.
“Football is a serious business and we employ about 4000 people. We pay taxes and also we are citizens.”
He concluded, “We have sent a proposal to government and still waiting for them.”
Ghana have so far recorded 193 cases. Five persons have died with 31 others recovering as the government puts Greater Accra and Greater Kumasi under a 14-day partial lockdown.
The prime minister’s chief aide Dominic Cummings is facing fresh allegations that he breached lockdown rules.
He and the government had said he acted “reasonably and legally” by driving from London to County Durham while his wife had Coronavirus symptoms.
The Observer and Sunday Mirror are now reporting he was seen in the North East on two more occasions, after recovering from his own COVID-19 symptoms and returning to work in London.
No 10 said the story is “inaccurate”.
Ministers have said Mr Cummings and his wife had chosen to self-isolate at a property adjacent to other family members in case they needed help with childcare.
Speaking to reporters outside his home in London on Saturday, he said he would not be resigning and had done the “right thing” by travelling 260 miles with his wife and young son to be near relatives when she developed COVID-19 symptoms at the end of March.
However, the two newspapers said witnesses have reported seeing Mr Cummings in Barnard Castle, more than 25 miles from Durham, on 12 April.
On 14 April, he was seen in London. According to the reports, he was spotted again in Houghall Woods near Durham on 19 April.
Mr Cummings is yet to publicly respond to the new claims, but the Sunday Telegraph reports that he told Downing Street that the allegations he made a second trip from London to Durham were “totally false”.
But the BBC’s political correspondent Iain Watson says ministers will be hoping that questions about Mr Cummings’ movements will not have dented public trust in the government’s lockdown guidance.
Quit calls
The story of Mr Cummings’ journey to Durham originally appeared in the Guardian and Daily Mirror on Friday evening.
In response to the fresh claims in the papers’ Sunday publications, Downing Street said: “Yesterday the Mirror and Guardian wrote inaccurate stories about Mr Cummings.
“Today they are writing more inaccurate stories including claims that Mr Cummings returned to Durham after returning to work in Downing Street on 14 April.
“We will not waste our time answering a stream of false allegations about Mr Cummings from campaigning newspapers.”
Opposition parties renewed their calls for the prime minister’s adviser to go.
The SNP’s Ian Blackford said Mr Cummings “has to leave office”, while acting Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey told BBC Radio 5 Live: “If Dominic Cummings has not been sacked by tomorrow, I think the prime minister’s judgement is in serious doubt.”
Ministerial backing
Government advice had been for people to stay at home during the first weeks of lockdown. Self-isolation at home continues to be advised for those with coronavirus symptoms.
However, ministers offered their support to Mr Cummings earlier in the day, with Health Secretary Matt Hancock tweeting that it was “entirely right” for the senior aide to find childcare.
Cabinet Office Minister Michael Gove tweeted: “Caring for your wife and child is not a crime.”
England’s deputy chief medical officer Dr Jenny Harries also said all health guidance should be applied with “common sense”.
But following the fresh reports concerning the alleged second visit to County Durham, a Labour source said: “If these latest revelations are true, why on earth were Cabinet ministers sent out this afternoon to defend Dominic Cummings?”
Before the new allegations, both Labour and the SNP said Mr Cummings flouted the government’s own advice and called for an urgent inquiry into his conduct.
It comes as the government announced 282 more people had died with Coronavirus since Friday, across all settings, bringing the total to 36,675.
With factories and farms silenced by the coronavirus shutdown, Albania’s bees have been busier than ever, stirring excitement among farmers expecting an unparalleled honey harvest thanks to a respite from pollution and pesticides.
“It’s a golden year for bees,” says 68-year-old Gezim Skermo, dressed in a protective suit as he inspects his rows of wooden hives, lined up along the verdant base of Morava mountain in southeast Albania.
The bucolic bee farm, home to some 300 colourfully-painted hive boxes, is one of the biggest in Albania and the only operation in the Balkan state to export its honey abroad.
During his 50 years in beekeeping, Skermo says he has “never seen a season like this,” hailing it as “rebirth for nature and the bees”.
The beekeeper attributes the sudden buzz to the coronavirus measures, which froze public and industrial life after Albania detected its first cases of the novel coronavirus in early March.
In the area around Morava, the restrictions have brought quiet, cleaner air and less pesticide-spraying from farmers who curbed production in the face of economic uncertainty from the virus, which has claimed some 30 lives in the Balkan state.
“This year we didn’t have any losses, unlike in previous years when we found dead bees in front of the hives,” said Skermo.
“There was no noise, no pollution, nothing that could disturb them”.
Around him the pollinating insects performed their dance between surrounding flowers where they gather nectar, a water trough for refuelling and their hives, where the honey is made.
In front of the entrance to each hive, four female bees stood guard to keep out intruders from other colonies.
“Each bee has its own job and position, with the queen, the (egg) layer, in charge of all the inner life,” explains Ermal Benga, who oversees production, as he uses his bee-smoker to calm the insects down before opening a hive.
Canaries in the coal mine
The Morava farm normally produces between five and 15 tonnes of honey a year, in varieties ranging from white clover to pine, rapeseed, wild thyme and chestnut, depending on which flowers are in season.
It also collects and processes tonnes of honey from beekeepers all over Albania, where there are some 360,000 registered hives.
This year Morava’s beekeepers are planning to start collecting the sweet stuff earlier than normal in order to make two harvests instead of one.
It is a huge turnaround from the devastation of 2016 and 2017, when 40 percent of Albania’s hives collapsed and losses topped 60 million euros.
Experts blamed the ruin on an “epidemic” of the varroa mite parasite, whose rise was helped by deforestation, plus the use of neonicotinoids, a common class of insecticides used in agriculture.
The chemicals, which attack the nervous system of insects, have since been banned in the European Union but not in Albania.
Today, however, Albania’s “conditions are optimal for the bees, which are real ecological sentinels,” Skermo’s 44-year-old son Eugen told AFP, referring to species that can provide an advance warning of risks, such as canaries in a coal mine.
In addition to the domestic market, Morava exports some 40 tonnes annually to the United States, Switzerland, Singapore and China.
But although the company has an analysis laboratory donated by the EU, it is not allowed to export its honey to the bloc because of a ban on Albanian products of animal origin.
Out of superstition, founder Skermo refuses to give specific figures from how much honey will be produced this season.
But he insists the yield will be abundant and of the highest quality.
“While people have been shut up at home, the bees have not been confined,” he said. “They have been working very hard.”
The Cypriot government ended a strict coronavirus lockdown Thursday, reopening outdoor restaurants, barber shops and beaches, but keeping the Mediterranean resort island’s vital airports and hotels closed for now.
After two months of living in self-isolation, Cypriots are allowed to move around freely again.
Some 32,000 more people went back to work as part of the government’s second stage out of lockdown.
Thousands of children returned to the classroom as state-run schools resumed most classes.
Since mid-March people could only go outside for exercise and essential trips which needed to be approved by text message while a curfew was enforced every night.
Cyprus activated the second stage of its draft timetable for ending the lockdown after the the daily number of new infections remained in single figures throughout the first three weeks of May.
Virologist Dr Leontios Kostrikis, who is a member of the health ministry’s epidemiological monitoring unit, said he was “very satisfied” with the figures so far.
Announcing four new infections in the previous 24 hours on Wednesday evening, Kostrikis said Cyprus was entering a watershed moment in its fight against the coronavirus.
“The second stage is a make or break point for a full return to normalcy and for this reason we kindly ask you to keep up the good work with the same determination so that we are not forced to take backward steps,” Kostrikis told reporters.
Due to the better than expected figures, the government has also decided to allow Cypriots access to organised beaches from 23 May, rather than June 1 as planned.
At present only swimming is allowed not sunbathing or any other leisure activity.
Parks and public spaces have also reopened but not children’s playgrounds.
Church services and other forms of religious worship will also be allowed to resume from May 23 instead of June.
Still no flights
But the island’s two international airports in Larnaca and Paphos remain firmly shut for now, as do the crossing points to the breakaway Turkish-Cypriot north of the island.
The tourism sector makes up a key part of the Cyprus economy and the government has been under heavy pressure to reopen airports and hotels before the peak summer season.
The government has said it hopes to reopen airports gradually from mid-June with hotels to reopen two weeks after that.
But it has yet to issue any health protocols on how they will operate.
Gyms and indoor bars and restaurants will also remain shut until the third phase out of lockdown scheduled to start from June 9.
The government has said crossing points through the UN-patrolled buffer zone that divides the government-controlled south from the breakaway north will not reopen before next month.
Their closure has prevented thousands of Turkish Cypriots from reaching work in the south and sparked Turkish Cypriot demonstrations.
Since the first case on March 9, the Cyprus government has confirmed 922 coronavirus infections and 17 deaths, including in the island’s British sovereign base areas.
Turkish Cypriot authorities have confirmed 108 cases and four deaths.
India recorded more than 5,200 new infections on Tuesday – its biggest spike so far in a single day. Its tally of confirmed cases is now over 106,000, with 61,149 active infections.
The spike comes as the country begins to ease one of the world’s most severe lockdowns, in which almost everything except essential services such as healthcare and food supplies was shut.
While European countries have already peaked, experts have said that’s yet to happen in India. Dr Randeep Guleria, director of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, has said that cases could peak in June-July, which is also the flu season.
But other epidemiologists believe the peak may vary from state to state, as the progress of the disease has also differed widely across regions.
Maharashtra state alone, for instance, accounts for nearly 40% of India’s confirmed cases – and along with Gujarat it makes up nearly 70% of the national death toll from the pandemic.
A research conducted by the Ghana Statistical Service with support from Vodafone Ghana on mobility analysis during the three weeks partial lockdown shows that the number of trips between any two districts in Greater Accra decreased to 50-60% below the baseline level during the lockdown period.
Before the lockdown where there were initial restrictions such as social distancing , the number of trips between any two districts in Greater Accra decreased by 20-30%, relative to the baseline value.
Ghana undertook a three-week partial lockdown of the Greater Accra, Greater Kumasi, Tema and Kosoa areas to help fight the coronavirus pandemic.
According to the findings of the report, the number of trips between any two districts in the Greater Accra region increased significantly, relative to the lockdown period, immediately after lockdown measures were lifted.
However, this level is still around 40% below the baseline level and has remained consistently at this level for the entire period since lockdown measures were lifted, although some part of this decrease may be due to a decrease in phone activity relative to the baseline period.
For Ashanti region, the number of trips between any two districts in Ashanti decreased by around 20%, relative to the baseline value, during the period when initial restrictions were in place.
It however increased slightly but not significantly, relative to the previous days, after lockdown measures were announced.
It decreased to around 50% below the baseline level during the lockdown period, and increased significantly, relative to the lockdown period, immediately after lockdown measures were lifted.
However, this level is still 30% below the baseline level and has remained consistently around this value for the entire period since lockdown measures were lifted.
For other regions, the number of trips between any two districts in each region, excluding Greater Accra and Ashanti decreased in all regions, by 10-30%, relative to the baseline value of each region, during the period when initial restrictions were in place.
It did not change significantly, relative to the previous days, after lockdown measures were announced.
It, however, decreased further, in all regions, after lockdown measures were introduced.
The mobility analysis is to support the Government of Ghana in responding to the COVID-19 outbreak.
Insights into the effect of mobility restrictions in Ghana was done using anonymised and aggregated mobile phone data.
The report was published with initial insights on 3rd April, showing how population movements had been affected by nationwide school closures and a nationwide ban on public gatherings, and then by a lockdown in parts of the GreaterAccra Metropolitan Area and the Greater Kumasi Metropolitan Area.
BARS and beaches were packed across Europe yesterday as the Continent looks to get back to normal after lockdown.
Italy and Spain are further easing coronavirus restrictions today after both countries recorded their lowest daily death tolls for two months.
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A packed beach in Alimos, Greece, yesterday as lockdown measures were eased across EuropeCredit: AP:Associated Press
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A beachside cafe on the first day it was allowed to open this morning at Malvarrosa, ValenciaCredit: EPA
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Waiters are wearing face masks and spacing tables to ensure social distancingCredit: Reuters
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Cafe owners measure the distance between tables in MalagaCredit: Rex Features
Italy recorded 145 new Covid-19 deaths yesterday, the lowest since the nationwide lockdown was imposed on March 9.
And in Spain it was 87, the first time in two months it has been below 100.
Both countries had more than 900 deaths a day at the height of the outbreak.
The UK’s 170 deaths was also its lowest daily toll since March, but lockdown measures here are not being lifted yet.
In Italy today, more businesses including shops, bars and hairdressers will be opening their doors for the first time in two months, and churches will be holding services.
The government had wanted them to stay shut until the end of May but backed down under pressure from regional governors who threatened to begin reopening anyway.
Sardinia, Veneto and Calabria – have said they will push for maximum easing of measures as soon as possible.
However travel between regions and into Italy is stall banned until at least June 3.
Spain is set for a shopping bonanza as the annual sales are set to go ahead despite social distancing fears.
Even in Madrid and Barcelona – which have not yet fully entered the Phase 1 of exiting lockdown – smaller shops will be allowed to welcome customers without an appointment.
And outside the two big cities, people will be allowed to gather outdoors in groups of ten.
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Crowds of shoppers in Rome yesterday as bars and beaches are set to reopen for the first time in over two monthsCredit: EPA
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Shopkeepers preparing to reopen today in Turin, ItalyCredit: EPA
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Outdoors tables at a cafe in Brescia, ItalyCredit: EPA
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People enjoy the sunshine in Trocadero Square in ParisCredit: AP:Associated Press
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Crowds enjoy the sunny weather yesterday in Malaga, SpainCredit: Rex Features
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Residents out on the streets last night in AthensCredit: AFP or licensors
In Malaga, cafe owners were seen measuring the distance between tables as they prepared to welcome customers back today.
And the islands of Formentera and Cabrera in the Balearics, and La Graciosa, El Hierro and La Gomera in the Canary Islands, will be allowed to skip ahead to Phase 2 which allows the reopening of shopping centres and gatherings of up to 15 people.
But PM Pedro Sanchez said he will ask Parliament to extend the state of emergency until late June.
The tourist industry is set to lose its critical summer season with foreign visitors still not allowed.
Mr Sanchez said: “Spain needs tourism. But tourism needs security. It needs health guarantees.”
Meanwhile Belgium is to begin reopening primary and secondary schools today under strict conditions to keep children and teachers apart.
Portugal, Greece, Denmark and Ireland are also easing their lockdown measures by degrees.
It comes after people across Europe headed to parks and the coast at the weekend to enjoy their new freedoms as the worst-hit continent emerges from the tough restrictions.
Beaches were packed in Greece, and surfers flocked to newly reopened Lacanau in France which had been shut for two months.
Parks around Paris and Annecy were also heaving with sunbathers, while outdoor cafes were busy with customers in Germany.
Over the weekend parasols and sun-loungers started to appear on coastlines in Italy ahead of expected reopening.
Despite the falling death figures, Dr Hans Kluge of the World Health Organisation warned countries should be planning for a second wave of infection.
He said: “This is not a time for celebration, it’s a time for preparation.”
Authorities in many countries have asked people to show restraint and not to throng public spaces like beaches as they are made accessible again.
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People exercising in the sunshine yesterday in Annecy, FranceCredit: AFP or licensors
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Sunbathers in Vincennes wood near ParisCredit: AFP or licensors
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Face masks are an essential accessory with a bikini in Nice, FranceCredit: AFP or licensors
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A restaurant owner disinfects ahead of reopening today in Brescia, ItalyCredit: EPA
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A pavement cafe with tables spaced out in Mainz, GermanyCredit: AFP – DPA
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A shopkeeper cleans the windows ready for reopening in Turin, ItalyCredit: EPA
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The busy beach yesterday in Alimos, GreeceCredit: AP:Associated Press
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Workers sprayed disinfectant between the sunbeds on the sandCredit: AP:Associated Press
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Sunseekers flocked to the coast as authorities eased lockdown measuresCredit: Getty Images – Getty
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Surfers and horse riders headed to newly reopened Lacanau, FranceCredit: Rex Features
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Beaches in Lacanau saw crowds for the first time after they were closed for two monthsCredit: Rex Features
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Shops are preparing to welcome shoppers again in Turin, ItalyCredit: EPA
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Social distancing in effect as a school reopened today in Bordeaux, FranceCredit: EPA
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Schools also reopened today in BelgiumCredit: Reuters
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Children spaced out in a classroom in AustriaCredit: EPA
The Bank of Ghana (BoG) has noted that the use of electronic means of payment went up due to the partial lockdown of Accra and Greater Kumasi following the Coronavirus outbreak.
The lockdown led to the decline in cash transactions, the central bank said.
President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, as part of his measures to tackle the COVID-19 in Ghana placed restrictions on the movements of person in these areas in the country.
At the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting in Accra on Friday May 15, the Governor of the BoG, Dr Ernest Addison, said the lockdown resulted in a decline in currency as consumers resorted to the use of electronic modes of payment.
“General economic uncertainty reduced demand for credit, as commercial banks tightened their credit stance. As a result, credit to the private sector remained virtually flat during the period.
“Broad money supply (M2+) slowed significantly to 13.5 percent in March 2020, compared with 21.6 percent growth a year ago,†e said.
Regarding the viability of the banking sector of the local economy, he said : “The latest stress tests conducted in April 2020 suggest that banks are strong and resilient and are well-positioned to withstand mild to moderate liquidity and credit shocks on the basis of strong capital buffers and high liquidity positions.
“Capital Adequacy Ratio is well above the revised regulatory floor of 11.5 percent. However, the industry NPL ratio has inched up during the quarter, reflecting the emerging impact of the pandemic on low credit growth and higher loan provisioning.
“So far, banks are also responding positively to the recently-announced policy initiatives to support the economy by reducing lending rates and supporting credit growth, as well as offering moratoriums on loan repayments to cushion customers.â€
Deputy Minister of Health, Dr. Bernard Okoe Boye, has commended the Government of Ghana for doing a good job in controlling the COVID-19 situation.
Dr. Okoe Boye asserted that despite the increasing cases of the pandemic disease, the country’s infection and mortality rates remain one of the lowest in Africa and the world at large.
According to Dr. Okoe Boye, but for the interventions of President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, the country might have seen a higher case count than what it has currently recorded.
Speaking to host Kwami Sefa Kayi on Peace FM’s ‘Kokrokoo’ programme, he held that the government deserves a pat on the back for putting measures in place to safeguard the lives of Ghanaians and also ensuring there are no widespread infections of the virus.
“If you want to judge a country by the number of cases to say the management of the situation has failed, then the whole world has failed. So, you don’t make the mistake of looking at absolute numbers and judge a country to be a failure because it has recorded 5,000. What you must look at is what would have happened if the measures were not put in place?”
“. . Of the 4,832 active cases, if 2,000 of them become negative in three weeks, do you know what it means? It means this figure once upon a time was only a statistical record. In three weeks, two thousand people from this number who were once upon time positive today might become negative. Now, what it means is that the figure we’re having today is transient,” he stated.
He also expressed his disagreement with people who think the President shouldn’t have lifted the lockdown because of the increment in the case count.
Highlighting the main reasons for a lockdown in a pandemic as the novel Coronavirus, he said; “it was to buy time and have enough knowledge about the virus but at a particular threshold, you start going back to life knowing that the risk is still around, but you reduce the risk with steps and guidelines”.
Mexico has reached “the peak moment” of its coronavirus outbreak, officials said, as the country recorded its largest one-day rise in cases so far.
More than 2,409 new cases of the virus were confirmed on Thursday – the first time this figure has exceeded 2,000.
The total number of confirmed cases in the country is now more than 40,000.
The grim milestone comes amid preparations to ease lockdown measures and reopen the economy, particularly factories near the border with the US.
Assistant Health Secretary Hugo López-Gatell – an epidemiologist and Mexico’s coronavirus tsar – described this as “the most difficult moment of the first wave of the epidemic”.
He said that the country “could not relax measures” in place to stem the spread of the virus, and instead needs to embrace a “new normal” to avoid another wave of infections.
On Monday, some key industries – including mining, construction and automobile assembly – are scheduled to partially reopen.
Mr López-Gatell stressed that the re-opening of these industries will be largely preparatory, with a broader restart of businesses not scheduled until 1 June.
Government data released on Thursday also showed more than half of hospitals in the capital, Mexico City, were at capacity with coronavirus patients.
At the end of April, hospitals in the city admitted they were having to turn patients away because of a lack of equipment.
Earlier this month, Mexico received a shipment of more than 200 ventilators purchased from a US firm.
This followed an informal agreement between the neighbouring nations’ leaders in mid-April.
A general or partial lockdown does not seem to be in the books of government as part of measures to fight the Covid-19 pandemic, Health Minister Kwaku Agyemang Manu has suggested.
According to him, the recent partial lockdown of Greater Accra and Greater Kumasi has taught government a lot of things per the severe impact it had on the nation.
He further advised that all that people have to do now is to learn to live with the disease by following the laid down protocols.
Answering a question as to whether Obuasi will be on lockdown due to the high number of coronnavirus cases it has recorded, at the just ended Ministry of Information press briefing, Mr Manu sad he does not believe a lockdown would work any longer.
He said “generally, a lockdown is not something that we believe is going to work any longer. Now we have realized the lockdown taught us a lot of things and the impact is quite severe. So what we have to do now is to learn to live with the disease.â€
He however indicated that the Director General of the Ghana Health Service was in Obuasi with a group of epidemiologists and until they come back with their report “we must be very careful as to whether we are talking about a lockdown in Obuasi,†he said.
South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa has said in the coming days the lockdown imposed because of the coronavirus pandemic will be eased slightly, with more businesses and shops allowed to operate and fewer restrictions on exercise.
The country has been the worst hit in Africa with about 12,000 confirmed cases and 219 deaths.
In a live broadcast on Wednesday, Mr Ramaphosa admitted his government had made mistakes but said the country was in uncharted territory.
He said had it not been for the almost eight-week lockdown, at least 80,000 people could have contracted the virus.
Urging caution, he said if the restrictions were lifted too abruptly there would be a risk of a rapid and unmanageable surge in infections.
Seasoned journalist, Kwesi Pratt has hinted there will soon be another lockdown in the country.
Contributing to panel discussion on ”Kokrokoo” on Peace FM, Kwesi Pratt stated that looking at the rapid spread of the Coronavirus resulting in Ghana recording 5,127 cases, it is possible President Nana Akufo-Addo will announce another lockdown to contain the situation.
Kwesi Pratt also listed a number of factors that may inform the President’s decision to issue a lockdown again.
According to him, looking at some Ghanaians not adhering to the preventive protocols to curb the disease, it will be prudent for the enforcement of a lockdown because that is the only way to safeguard the citizenry.
He said research has proven restricting human movements is the surest way to fight the pandemic and therefore from his observations about the behaviour of Ghanaians ”there could be a lockdown again…Maybe it won’t be a national lockdown but for the epic centers, you have to lock down”.
A communications team member of the largest opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), Bernard Anim Piesie, has called on authorities responsible for funds disbursed by government to feed citizens during the 3-week partial lockdown to account for it and reimburse Ghanaians.
When the lockdown was announced by President Akufo-Addo in March, the Gender Ministry announced measures to feed the vulnerable.
The government began to distribute free meals to over 400,000 Ghanaians in locked-down areas.
Some people also had foods like rice, yam in its raw state and it helped to ease the economic hardship that comes with COVID-19.
However, the NDC Communicator on UTV’s ‘Adekye Nsroma’ newspaper discussion segment lamented that, “the amount and quality of cooked foods distributed during the partial lockdown days will not amount to the allocated 40 million Ghana cedis, neither will the uncooked foods shared to citizens will amount to the same money allocated by government, so all we expect from government is to find means of retrieving the balance. Definitely there must be a balance”.
Here’s a graph of Germany’s cases from the country’s official institute for infectious diseases.
The yellow bars show the number of reported cases, the blue ones only the onset of symptoms. The occasional sudden drops are usually on a Monday because of delayed weekend data.
The easing of the lockdown began on 20 April, when the country allowed small shops to reopen.
In the following weeks, some schools began allowing some pupils to return to class. Since then, the country’s different states have eased measures further – with some even allowing restaurants and bars to open.
While numbers of new infections have fallen below 1,000, and remain way down on their peak, worries remain that easing restrictions will drive infections up again.
The latest figures from Germany, not on the chart, show a daily rise of 933 cases.
PNC General Secretary, Atik Mohammed, has admonished Ghanaians to stop flouting the preventive protocols to curb the spread of Coronavirus in the country.
Speaking to host Kwami Sefa Kayi on Peace FM’s ‘Kokrokoo’, Atik Mohammed bemoaned the character of some Ghanaians who have refused to heed the simple safety measures to control the disease.
According to him, ”the Ghanaian attitude is terrible” in all sectors of the economy.
He stressed the nation will defeat the pandemic only when all Ghanaians play a significant role in observing the health instructions.
Atik Mohammed advised the citizenry to cherish their lives because the pandemic is not a comic relief but a matter of life and death.
“The Ghanaian attitude is terrible in every sector. When you take health, our attitude is bad. In sanitation and governance, our attitude is bad . . . There is no regard for social distancing. The people are not observing the protocols and all we’re doing is spreading the virus among us,” he stated.
He added that “the very nature of our homes and social relationship is such that we tend to get close to one another and therefore if people keep disobeying the protocols”, there will be a rapid spread of the disease.
The debate to lockdown the country or not was one of the most inconclusive debates that started in the country and ended with what I feel was a compromise between locking down and not locking down.
Parts of the nation considered as hot spots were locked down in an attempt to give Scientist and Epidemiologist an opportunity to understand the disease, do aggressive testing and contact tracing, isolate infected people (mostly self-Quarantine) and treat moderate to severely Ill patients.
This was a conscious effort to enable the public health apparatus to get ahead of the disease and afford the country the opportunity to flatten the curve early so that we can avoid the unpleasant situation of not getting our fragile healthcare system overwhelmed and expose the citizenry to the same fate as our European and American friends.
So we locked down. A lot of agitations mixed with some gratitude from a few saw us being applauded so loudly as a nation for the way we are tackling the challenge of this virus in our own small way. A lot of private and public sectors stepped forward to help in the fight, everyone was beginning to get used to the norm, restricted movement and deliberate attempts to get ahead of the disease.
Whether we were truly getting ahead of this disease was still not clear as the ordinary Ghanaian was never given a clear overview of the details of the Science because the data clearly stated that we needed to restrict movement even more.
And then BAM, the lockdown was lifted at a case count of 1,042 and 9 deaths on April 19, 2020.
Eleven (11) days following this decision which I believe hinged strongly on social and economic science, April 30, 2020, the number almost doubled to 2,074 cases with 17 deaths.
What does this mean? The case surge is almost a vertical line, not that “nice†calming slope we were seeing.
The question which I believe should have been answered before this decision to start the lockdown is; Are we in the position to see it through to the end, not this abrupt end. Your guess may be as good as mine.
We still have not been able to put a value on human life, at least not in any of our reports. So multiply that arbitrary value by 19 and the answer will be. . . Exactly, we do not know that either.
However five questions I hope was answered before lifting the lockdown should include:
1. What is the next strategy because we are not just testing for the sake of seeing how many positive cases we can get but there should be a very clear strategy on what we are doing by increasing our testing capacity this much. Except we are now leaning towards Herd Immunity, in which case, did we need to lockdown in the first place?
2. Can our very vulnerable healthcare system support us should the disease get out of control with our new undefined strategy?
3. Is the number of deaths and new cases declining?
4. Do we have enough PPEs for our frontline workers and most public and private institutions? If not. . .
5. Do we have a strategy to avoid a second wave?
Until we all, as a people have the same clear answers to these very important questions then it will be very bad before it gets worse.
In the meantime, stay home, observe all personal hygienic measures and PRAY.
Dr Hamza Asumah is a Surgeon and Medical Director of Abenkyiman Hospital (a private hospital) in the Bekwai municipality and the founder and managing director of Halo Medical Services, a medical consultancy firm since October 2012. He plays the oversight duty of ensuring the daily clinical and administrative management of these companies.
Disclaimer : “Opinions expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author(s) and do not in any way reflect those of backend.theindependentghana.com. Our outfit will hereby not be liable for any inaccuracies contained in this article.â€
Three contact persons of a Nigerian national who was tested positive of the COVID-19 and escaped from isolation in Wa about three weeks ago has tested positive of the virus.
They have all been taken to the treatment centre at the Regional Hospital. This was contained in a statement signed by Dr Hafiz Bin Salih, the Upper West Regional Minister, and copied to the Ghana News Agency (GNA) in Wa.
It said as at May 3, 2020, the region had recorded 11 new cases of the virus bringing the total cases in the region to 19, one person fully recovered and reintegrated into the community and with no death recorded.
Seven of the confirmed cases were picked from the Sissala East Municipality following the mandatory screening of travelers arriving in the district from Kumasi and Accra during the partial lockdown period.
The statement said five of them were identified and transferred to the treatment centre at Tumu, the Municipal Capital, whilst efforts were underway to track the remaining two.
The remaining one person was a resident of Wa, who travelled into the region by a public transport after he returned from Kenya on February 16, 2020 and had his samples taken on April 16, 2020 upon self-request and was since in isolation in his house.
“All cases currently on treatment are mild to moderate. Investigation is underway to identify, isolate and treat all cases and trace all contacts. It is important to note that all the cases had a travel history or are contacts of known cases”, the statement added.
It therefore urged the people to remain calm and to support the authorities in the fight the deadly disease.
As part of measures to control the disease in the region, the statement said “the Rapid Response Teams (RRT) at both regional and district levels continue to monitor and investigate new cases and rumours as they are reportedâ€.
It also reiterated the need for the public to strictly observe the COVID-19 protocols including; physical distancing, regular hand washing with soap and alcohol-based hand sanitizer; avoid going to public places unless it was absolutely necessary and properly wearing nose masks when going to any public place among others.
On the Cerebrospinal Meningitis (CSM), the statement indicated that 30 cases with one death were recorded over the past two weeks, bringing the total number of cases in the region to 303 with 44 deaths.
It identified the Nandom and Jirapa Municipalities and the Nadowli District as the worse hit areas but said none of the districts were currently experiencing any epidemic.
“Laboratory investigation continues to show that the majority of the cases are caused by Neisseria Meningitides Sero Group X, which currently has no vaccine”, it said.
A hotel manager in South Africa’s North West province has told local eNCA news station that alcohol was the “main priority” of a group of robbers who raided his business at gunpoint.
“First of all they requested access to the alcohol… and then they wanted access to the rooms to see what valuable items were in the rooms,” Willie Kruger said.
Alcohol sales are still banned under the lockdown in South Africa, which has been partially relaxed.
CCTV footage broadcast by eNCA shows the criminals filling up a large bin with the contents of a fridge and then dragging it away.
The robbery took place just after the night-time curfew began, the TV station reports.
More than two-thirds of people surveyed in 20 African countries said they would run out of food and water if they had to stay at home for 14 days.
Just over half of the respondents said they would run out of money.
The Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention research was conducted to help governments map out future policies on how to tackle coronavirus.
It warns that if measures are not adapted to local needs, there is a risk of unrest and violence.
The report, Using Data to Find a Balance, shows the difficulties of maintaining strict lockdown policies on the continent.
The research was conducted between late March and mid-April in 28 cities in 20 countries to assess the impact of the crisis and people’s attitudes to restrictions that had already been imposed in some areas.
Several African countries which had responded swiftly to the coronavirus threat are now easing restrictions.
“The proliferation of peaceful protests demanding government relief is evidence of the strain some people are already under, and highlights gaps in current responses,” the report says.
But it found that there was currently general support for restrictions that had been put in place.
Opposition was highest to measures such as closing workplaces and shutting down markets.
According to the survey, the lowest-income households expected to run out of food and money in less than a week.
In Nigeria and Kenya, social media users noted that hunger in urban area was forcing them to violate stay-at-home orders, it said.
The findings chime with a story that viral last week of a Kenyan widow who was found cooking stones for her eight children to make them believe she was preparing food for them, saying: “I could do nothing because I had nothing.”
The researchers have recommended that governments need to communicate more effectively with their citizens and properly inform them about the reasons behind the measures that are being taken.
“What we’ve learnt from Ebola and other outbreaks is that countries need to decentralise the response to the community level and increase their capacity to identify and diagnose cases,” said Matshidiso Moeti, Africa director of the World Health Organization (WHO), which also commissioned the research.
Governments in Africa have been facing a dilemma when deciding how best to respond to the pandemic.
Millions need to leave their homes every day to go and work to feed their families.
“Countries now must find a balance between reducing transmission while preventing social and economic disruption,” the report says.
So far Africa has recorded nearly 50,000 cases of Covid-19, the respiratory infection caused by coronavirus, with just under 2,000 deaths.
The report recommends that while caseloads remain low, countries on the continent need to “build public health capacity to test, trace, isolate, and treat cases” as the necessary foundation for reopening societies.
Senior lecturer at the Department of Biostatistics, School of Public Health, University of Ghana, Dr.Justice Moses Aheto has expressed his disappointment in the Ghana Health Service (GHS) and the Government regarding the imposition and lifting of the lockdown that occurred in the month of April.
According to him, the Coronavirus is a scientific problem and as such we need to allow scientific procedures to show the way forward.
Speaking in an interview on the Happy Morning Show(HMS), he told host Samuel Eshun, “Ghana Health Service is actually doing their best to contain the situation. However there are certain things that we have not been able to do together or a proper management of the situationâ€.
He added that if the Government decides to roll out certain interventions such as a lockdown, there are basic things that need to be considered.
“There are two key reasons for going for a lockdown. The first is to minimize the spread of the disease because the coronavirus is an infectious disease.
If you minimize how people come into contact with each other, you will minimize the spread as well. The second reason is for you to do easy contact tracingâ€.
He, however, noted that the purpose of the lockdown was not realized. “When the President came back to give a reason for lifting the lockdown we were made to understand that the lifting of the lockdown was based on data.
However, the data showed that the numbers were increasing. When the cases were minimal, we imposed a lockdown but when it increased we lifted the lockdownâ€, he added.
The President of Ghana imposed a three-week lockdown in the country as a measure to contain the spread of the novel Coronavirus disease. However, the lockdown was lifted while maintaining ban on public gathering and closure of educational institutions.
A top scientist who advised British leaders on coronavirus lockdown measures said on Tuesday he had resigned from a key government panel after admitting to breaking the country’s rules on social distancing.
Professor Neil Ferguson, an epidemiologist on the advisory team helping the UK coordinate its pandemic response, stepped down following media reports that he had allowed a woman to visit him at home.
“I accept I made an error of judgement and took the wrong course of action,” he said.
“I deeply regret any undermining of the clear messages around the continued need for social distancing to control this devastating epidemic.”
The scientist said he had “stepped back” from his role on the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies. A government spokesman confirmed his resignation.
Britain, the world’s second worst-hit country after the US with more than 32,000 coronavirus deaths, imposed strict stay-at-home orders in late March.
The government had ramped up its response to the crisis after research by Ferguson and his colleagues at Imperial College London warned that Covid-19 infections and deaths would spiral without drastic action.
Ferguson’s resignation came after the Daily Telegraph reported that a woman, said to be his “lover”, came to his home in London on two occasions during the lockdown.
“I acted in the belief that I was immune, having tested positive for coronavirus, and completely isolated myself for almost two weeks after developing symptoms,” the professor said.
He added: “The government guidance is unequivocal, and is there to protect all of us.”
Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who was hospitalised by the disease and has now recovered, ordered the initial three-week lockdown on March 23.
Under the measures, “non-essential” shops and services were shut while residents were told not to go out except for exercise and to buy essential items. Police were given powers to fine those flouting the rules.
The lockdown was extended for another three weeks in mid-April, but Johnson is soon expected to set out his plan to lift the stringent rules, according to media reports.
At the weekend, India extended the nationwide coronavirus lockdown by another fortnight, but said that domestic helpers can now return to work. The decision has had millions of middle-class homes debating a key question – to let the workers in or not?
A friend once said that if she had to choose between her husband and her maid, she would pick the latter.
The comment was made as a joke, but it’s an example of how much Indians depend on their domestic helpers.
According to official estimates, more than four million people are employed as domestic helpers, while unofficial ones put that number at a whopping 50 million.
But with the lockdown extended twice already, and the idea sinking in that this is going to be a long haul, middle-class India has begun to miss the maids.
Google data between March 29 and April 11, 2020, shows that retail and recreational activities in Ghana went down by an average of 55.6%.
This is compared to baseline levels measured in January and February.
The data also showed a similar trend for travel to grocery and pharmacy stores and transit stations, which were down by an average of 33.9% and 50.3% respectively.
According to the rating agency, Fitch, while there was a slight reversion towards normality post-lockdown, consumers are still below average on their travels for retail-related activities.
“As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic in the country and the fall in the price of oil, we have revised down our real household spending outlook for 2020 to 4.3% year-on-year, from the 4.9% we predicted pre-COVID-19â€, it said.
This is significantly lower than the 11.9% it estimated for 2019.
This revision was based on the fact that all non-essential retail was shuttered for three weeks, while retail that was allowed to operate, saw significantly less traffic.
Supermarkets and grocery shops were classified as essential services, so they were allowed to operate during the three-week lockdown period.
The rating agency said in the week prior to the lockdown, there was evidence of bulk and panic buying at the leading mass grocery retailers.
Google mobility data shows that travel to grocery shops peaked at 14% above average on March 28, the day after lockdown.
However, for the period after the lockdown (March 27 to April 26), travel to grocery shops was down by an average of 32.8%, compared to the baseline.
“We believe that spending on alcoholic drinks will decline year-on-year. Social distancing and the closure of taverns, bars and restaurants meant that on-trade consumption would have dropped during the lockdown. These facilities remain closed.â€
The Member of Parliament for Ablekuma West, Ursula Owusu-Ekuful has hinted the constituency could possibly go on lockdown should residents fail to adhere to the social distancing rule.
The MP who is the current Minister of Communications was worried the cases in the constituency would escalate if efforts are not put in place to contain the virus.
The case count in the constituency she disclosed has risen to 79, a situation she said was worrying.
According to her, they only had two cases when the outbreak started and from what has occurred so far, it would be prudent to enforce the protocols in place.
She called on the security personnel to deal ruthlessly with persons who are violating the guidelines in place.
The MP stressed the authorities in the area would have no option than to consider lockdown in the areas that are mostly affected.
The constituency she said has been identified as one of the hot spots in the constituency.
Meanwhile, the Ghana Health Service says Ghana is at the peak of its coronavirus crisis.
The Director of Public Health at the Ghana Health Service (GHS), Dr Badu Sarkodie at a press briefing at the Ministry of Information in Accra today [Tuesday, May 5, 2020], in answering a question as to where Ghana is on the bell curve, said, “So to answer directly to the question, we are at the peak of the curve.â€
New car registrations almost ground to a halt in April after coronavirus lockdown measures were introduced, the motor industry has said.
Figures from industry body the SMMT show only 4,321 cars were registered, the lowest monthly level since 1946.
April’s figure marked a 97% plunge in sales from the same month last year.
The closure of car dealerships as part of measures to try to combat the disease has hit consumer registrations.
The Society for Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) said that of the registrations made last month, 70% were by companies buying for their fleets. The cars would most likely have been on order before the lockdown, said Mike Hawes, SMMT chief executive.
“If you are told to close all your car showrooms for the entirety of April it’s no surprise sales are almost non-existent,” he told the BBC.
Many of the 4,000 cars sold last month were needed to support key workers and for those who had a pressing need for them, an SMMT spokesman said.
Those cars would not have been bought from dealerships, but instead, for example, from wholesalers, or directly from manufacturers.
The 4,000 figure for April compares to 161,064 new cars that were registered in same month last year.
The industry body said it now expects 1.68 million new car registrations in 2020 compared with 2.3 million in 2019.
Staff at some UK car manufacturers began returning to work this week, although the start of full production is a long way off, Mr Hawes said. The supply chain is also starting to re-open.
“Manufacturers are trying to figure out how to start operations in a safe environment,” he said. “But it will be slow and production will be ramped up very slowly.”
The coronavirus crisis has come at what was already a difficult time for the motor industry, which had been struggling with falling sales and a collapse in demand for diesel vehicles, while struggling to meet tough new emissions targets.
The figures are certainly dramatic, expected to be the lowest sales since February 1946.
But since virtually the entire motor industry ground to a halt when the lockdown was introduced, they are not entirely unexpected.
What matters now is what happens when the restrictions are eased and customers are allowed back into the showrooms.
You would expect there to be some pent-up demand – after all, dealerships began to close in mid-March, traditionally one of the strongest months of the year for new car sales.
However, since then harsh economic realities have come into play. Huge swathes of the workforce have been furloughed, and the signs are the country is heading into a deep recession.
Under those circumstances, with so much uncertainty and so many jobs at risk, how many people will really be willing to buy a new car?
We can expect a wave of incentive programmes – and quite possibly a wave of new scrappage schemes – as car companies start fighting tooth and nail for every single sale.
The coronavirus outbreak also halted car production.
All of the UK’s major car factories suspended work in March, and it is not yet clear when they will reopen.
Ian Plummer, commercial director at online marketplace Auto Trader, said: “With retailers forced to close the doors to their physical forecourts, it’ll come as no surprise to anyone to see just how dramatic an impact it’s had on the new car market.
“Some brands have been able to sell remotely, but uncertainty in the government’s guidelines or a lack of the required infrastructure to operate home delivery in a safe way, has limited it to all but a handful of retailers.”
However, he said Auto Trader data indicated that the market had been paused, rather than stopped.
He added that there would be a chance “for the industry to accelerate the adoption of low emission vehicles” when restrictions lift.
“However, it’ll be essential for manufacturers to push more electric vehicles into their UK networks along with greater financial incentives,” such as scrappage schemes, he said.
Seven persons have been arrested by the Northern Regional Police Command for failing to comply with restrictions imposed on public gatherings.
The suspects are Baba sheriff Aloboba 32, Adongo Ishmeal 19, Mark Derrick Azure 19, Sunday Okeke 43, Lambongang Paroka 20, Lardi Adongo 41, Benjamin Ayeebo 32.
The Northern Regional Crime Officer, Supt. Otuo Acheampong who confirmed the arrests to DGN Online, said the accused persons were arrested at Sarafina Bar near the police headquarters in Tamale for failing to comply with the restrictions imposed on public gatherings by operating and patronizing a drinking spot.
Supt. Acheampong disclosed that the accused persons were arraigned before the Tamale Circuit court presided over by His Honor William Tumasi and after hearing the case granted all the accused persons bail with two surities who are Government workers not earning less than Ghc 2,500.
He indicated that the accused persons have been charged with failing to comply with restrictions imposed on public gatherings.
The accused persons are expected to reappear in court on May 19,2020.
How do you find love when you’re stuck at home? The coronavirus pandemic has made that challenging, to say the least. But millions of single Americans are finding ways.
Some have attempted socially distanced outings, others have turned to steamy video chats, while still others have tried international online dating as people adapt the art of seduction to the virus era, and dating apps are finding ways to adjust.
In normal times, Kate Earle, a 30-year-old teacher in Washington, finds it fairly easy to connect in person with men she finds attractive at first glance on Tinder.
“But because that’s not an option, the conversations are going on much longer,” she said.
Earle said those conversations also seem to veer more often toward “online sexual interaction” but she added that, she has never considered breaking lockdown rules for an in-person date.
“I think everybody is a little bit sexually frustrated, and I am as well,” she said.
“And there’s definitely been temptation to meet up with somebody … but I think it’s not so much that I would actually do it.”
Masks off
The Great Lockdown has driven single people around the world to online dating apps in record numbers.
Tinder saw an all-time high in usage on March 29, with more than three billion “swipes,” and the number of messages exchanged on rival app Bumble increased 26 percent over a two-week period in March in the United States.
The lockdown order came at the worst possible time for Beatrice, who was newly separated from her husband and living in the US capital.
A 30-something French woman, registered with several online dating apps in mid-March.
Since then, she has found herself bending some of the confinement rules to improvise outings with her new acquaintances.
“I was a bit nervous,” she told AFP. “It’s hard walking with a mask on your face when you’re meeting someone for the first time. So you end up taking off the mask after five minutes.”
After a few disappointing outings during which she observed physical separation rules, she met someone she liked — “and we ended up not respecting social distancing,” she admitted.
‘The cherry on top’
In the new normal created by the virus crisis, video dating is fast becoming the norm. While Tinder lacks this option, both Hinge and Bumble offer virtual dating.
Zach Schleien launched his Filter Off app for video speed-dating just before the pandemic struck, and at first only a few thousand users signed up. But that changed quickly.
“It’s like a 7,000 percent increase in less than a month,” said the 29-year-old New Yorker, who believes online dating is the best way to assess possible romantic interest before meeting in person. “It’s been nuts.”
So, can a romantic candlelight dinner with a stranger, on a laptop screen really work?
Dating coach Bela Gandhi cited the example of one client, a woman in her 60s, “who has fallen in love with somebody in the last six weeks, and they’ve only met via Skype.”
Gandhi, who founded the Smart Dating Academy website, says video can make it easy to develop “emotional intimacy.”
“And then it’s just the cherry on top of the sundae once you meet in person.”
But Alexandra Solomon, a clinical psychologist on the faculty of Northwestern University outside Chicago, doesn’t see it quite that way.
“Thank goodness we have video dating for now,” she said, but added: “When we come out of this, I really want people to go back to meeting across the table over a glass of wine or a cup of tea and having that old-fashioned organic experience of each other.”
Meanwhile, for those interested in exploring possible matches abroad, Tinder is keeping its Passport feature free until Monday.
After that, “matches will remain, so no one has to say goodbye to anyone new they’ve met,” said a Tinder spokesman.
As the nation is told to stay at home, defiant protesters against HS2 have chosen to self-isolate at makeshift camps in under-threat forests. Dozens are living in ancient woodlands during lockdown – spending the days up trees – where they say they have been isolating as though they are a single, large household.
The camp at Crackley Woods, near Kenilworth, Warwickshire, consists of a roundhouse built from hay bales and covered in tarpaulin, a field kitchen, about 20 small tents and a handful of camper-vans. The landowner gave the protesters permission to set up here before lockdown, and they have continued to do so over the past six weeks.
Supporters bring food and care packages and leave them at the edge of the camp. It was originally made up of locals from the Stop HS2 campaign group, but they have been joined by people from other organisations including Extinction Rebellion.
It is possible to walk along a public bridleway which brings you through the woods to the edge of the camp, and to the fences which have been erected by HS2 contractors to keep the protesters out. On one side are mobile CCTV camera units called Armadillos, as well as HS2 staff wearing PPE who are patrolling the boundary to check for incursions.
On the other side, the protesters have built tree-houses and a gantry so they can see what’s happening over the fence. Nearly all of the trees that should have been felled have been taken down over the past few weeks. The campaigners took to the treetops to try to stop the work going ahead, and a number were arrested by enforcement officers.
One, known as Quercus – the Latin for oak – is a former tree surgeon. He spends most of the day in a tree-house 30ft up. He told me when he saw the trees coming down he was “overcome with grief” and he was willing to be arrested again to try to stop the trees being felled.
He has been at the camp for several weeks and says he feels it is important to continue the fight as the country remains in lockdown.
“Even before we had the pandemic and lockdown, there were a vast minority of people that were able to come out and do protests like this – certainly far fewer people now,” he said.
“People’s democratic right to protest and have their say has been taken away at this time.”
Another protest group, called HS2 Rebellion says it has blockaded more than 20 other sites around the UK from London to Crackley Woods.
One member said in an online video: “Our nurses and doctors are without PPE, yet these workers can continue because the Government deems them key workers.
“Our real key essential workers are without PPE because of projects like this.”
A statement said the group “wish to emphasise the public resistance to HS2’S destruction of our ancient woodland and wildlife habitats, and HS2’S failure to stop construction works at multiple sites breaching HSE Covid guidelines and exposing their workers, protesters, families and communities to unnecessary risk during a national health crisis”.
Campaigners claim 108 ancient woodlands along the route, which has been given the go ahead by the government, are under threat. HS2 said that was an exaggeration.
Paul Faulkner, chief executive of Greater Birmingham Chambers of Commerce, is a big supporter of the project. He believes it has very strong green credentials and says a tiny fraction of the country’s ancient woodland will be felled.
“HS2 is aiming to be the world’s most sustainable high-speed railway. It’s got a whole host of pro-environmental measures that it’s introducing, and that’s before we get on to the massive economic benefits that HS2 is going to bring.”
Stop HS2 has argued the economic benefits have never been proven and they believe the money would be better spent after lockdown ends.
Chief executive of HS2 Mark Thurston said 11,000 people from 2,000 companies were already working on the project and he expected that to double over the next two years.
“We see HS2 now as having an important role in getting the economy back on its feet,” he said.
The Department for Transport said in a statement: “While the government’s top priority is rightly to combat the spread of coronavirus, we should not delay work on our long-term plan to level up the country.”
Matt Bishop grew up in Coventry and visited Crackley Woods when he was a child. He has become one of the camp’s leaders. He still hopes the project – which has been given the green light by the government – can be halted.
“We need to show the government that you cannot just draw a line across the middle of the countryside. That’s just not acceptable,” he said.
The first train is not expected to roll into the new Birmingham Curzon Street station until 2029.
Greece has always prided itself on its sunny weather, beaches and islands. And anyone familiar with the coast of Croatia will know that finding towel room on its increasingly crowded beaches is a challenge.
But the coronavirus pandemic threatens to ruin the summer season, so vital to the economies of both countries, even though they moved fast to stop the spread. Their proximity to Italy concentrated minds, as Covid-19 started spreading rapidly.
How did they react?
Croatia was on alert soon after news of the Covid-19 epidemic emerged from China.
The Institute of Public Health had published guidelines even before the arrival of a busload of tourists from Wuhan in late January.
Local media raised concerns that Chinese workers constructing the Peljesac Bridge on the Dalmatian coast might have returned from virus-affected areas in China.
In Greece, too, the government moved well before the virus reached its shores, as it saw infections spread in Italy. An ad-hoc scientific committee was set up with top epidemiologists, virologists and infectious disease experts.
Some accused the government in Athens of not just entrusting the handling of the pandemic to scientists, but of handing over responsibility too.
When did lockdown start?
The first confirmed Croatian case came on 25 February, almost a month after Italy and the UK. It involved a man who had been in Milan six days earlier to see the now-notorious Champions League match between Atalanta and Valencia.
The match has been linked to one of Italy’s biggest outbreaks – in Bergamo, where Atalanta are based.
The first confirmed case in Greece was recorded a day later than Croatia, on 26 February. And both countries reacted swiftly.
Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis imposed tighter restrictions over a period of weeks and it was made clear that no exceptions could be made:
Greeks have since been allowed out of their homes only for essential work, buying food or walking the dog.
It became more difficult to enter Croatia immediately after its first case. Although an EU member, it is not yet part of the Schengen border-free area. So, despite protests from neighbouring Slovenia, it had no compunction about imposing “health checks” at border crossings.
By the end of February, a border queue of freight traffic stretched back for miles.
Restrictions tightened rapidly. Within two weeks, arrivals from 18 countries would find themselves confined to quarantine or self-isolation if they entered Croatia.
There were internal measures to match. Most commercial and cultural activity had ceased by mid-March. And on 23 March people were confined to their neighbourhoods unless they obtained an “e-pass” to travel.
Image copyrightGETTY IMAGESImage captionPublic transport has now resumed and shops have reopened as Croatia loosens its lockdown
Greek enforcement was strict too. More than 60,000 fines were issued for violating the lockdown which, according to Greek police, totalled €9,247,800 (£8.1m).
All this seems to have restricted the spread of Covid-19. Croatia’s death rate currently stands at 18 per million, while Greece’s stands at 13 per million.
How Greece handled Easter
One of the biggest challenges facing the Greek government came from the country’s religious tradition. According to Greek Orthodox ritual, priests offer holy communion using the same spoon.
Media captionGreek film directors confined by the pandemic made 10 short films in their homes
The Church of Greece’s leadership insisted for days that diseases could not be contracted from communion, which represents the blood and body of Jesus. Doctors and scientists immediately called on the Church to listen to science.
The prime minister intervened with an emotional, televised speech. “Personally, in recent days I felt the need to invoke my faith in order to draw strength and stand up to the challenges,” said Mr Mitsotakis. However, he said he had to “listen to scientists”. “What applies to public gatherings will also apply to churches.”
As a result, and with only a handful of hiccups, all church Easter liturgies took place behind closed doors.
Can they rescue summer?
Now Croatia and Greece are moving to a gradual easing of those restrictions.
For Croatia the problem is no longer how to keep foreigners out, but to bring them back in. About half of Croatia’s 20 million annual visitors arrive in July and August and tourism is responsible for at least a fifth of its economic output.
Those are the crucial months for Greece’s tourist industry too. This year’s motto, says Tourism Minister Haris Theocharis, is that Greece is coronavirus-safe.
The Greek economy had only just begun to recover from an eight-year financial crisis when the lockdown was imposed.
Image copyrightGETTY IMAGESImage captionGreeks have been able to get out and about again in the past week as the lockdown is eased
Tourism accounts for approximately 25% of Greek GDP and one in five jobs, so a new crisis is looming: 65% of Greek hoteliers say bankruptcy of their business is either “likely” or “most likely”, according to a study by the Hellenic Chamber of Hotels.
Greek scientists are working on health requirements for visitors, the tourism minister says. “The basic principles behind the new rules are that social distancing will be required, and that more frequent and different kinds of cleaning procedures are to be followed.”
In other words, hotel staff will be tested regularly to ensure tourists and Greeks themselves are protected.
Why Croatia needs open borders
Croatia needs co-operation from its neighbours, Slovenia in particular.
Slovenians rank second only to Germans in terms of the number of nights they spend in Croatia. If you travel by road from Northern Europe you have to cross Slovenia to reach the beaches of Istria, Dalmatia and the Kvarner Gulf.
The two countries’ tourism ministers met in Zagreb last week to sketch out a plan to allow Slovenians to travel across Croatia’s borders by the end of this month, with other nationalities following in June.
Czech travel agencies are keen to establish a “corona corridor” enabling quarantine-free travel to the coast, a plan warmly received by Croatia’s prime minister, Andrej Plenkovic. A survey in Austria too has indicated that people are still hoping to bask in the Croatian sun.
Uncertainty over air travel
With big questions over when holiday flights will resume, Greece too is initially looking for tourists who can reach the country by road.
It is currently focused on getting the EU to set common rules that would allow people to travel for holidays.
But if there is no consensus, Greece is prepared to go it alone, in order to “open up our economic activity as soon as possible and in a health-wise manner”, says Mr Theocharis.
“We will first see domestic tourism, then tourists from neighbouring countries, and then middle-distance countries and long-distance ones. Travelling by road will be safer initially than flying and we’ll see that kind of tourists earlier.”
Traditional markets like Germany, the UK and the US may well be replaced by countries that are both closer and have not been hit hard by the pandemic.
This may seem like an odd time to be thinking about holidays. But these are both countries with tourism-reliant economies and, having acted swiftly and thoroughly, a successful summer could be seen as a fitting reward.
