The Chief Executive Officer of Global Intelligence and Security, Samuel Nana Owusu Appiah, has appealed to President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, to immediately review some aspects of the Coronavirus Alleviation Programme (CAP) that seeks to provide meals for up to 400,000 individuals and homes affected by the partial lockdown in the wake of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
According to the security analyst, a review of the policy will do the country good by reducing the risk of people contracting the coronavirus as a result of overcrowding.
Interacting with Kasoa-based Pink FM, Tuesday, April 14, 2020, Mr. Owusu Appiah said the policy though good, its implementation has however, demonstrated that it has the potential of increasing the risk factor of infection as a result of mass gathering, which in effect, compromises social distancing protocols, in the distribution and delivery of cooked food to the vulnerable in the affected lockdown areas.
The alternative, he noted, should be the distribution of raw food which has the potential of making people stay at home.
“The sharing of cooked food is a very popular policy, very novel. But if a mistake happens and we record just one food poison case, the number of affected persons will be in hundreds. Because if one cook is serving about 500 people, and when food poison happens, we will have to rush a lot of people to the hospital and when we are not careful, there will be no bed to admit them. So the alternative is to share raw food – corn, gari, rice among others. When you do that, you have also helped the person to stay at home because he or she will take time to cook the food in the house. But when you leave them to come out and take delivery of the food, what it means is that they are being exposed to risk and or dangers of contracting the virus. So, what we are asking is for the government to review the policy on distributing food to the vulnerable”, he noted.
On Sunday, April 5, 2020, President Akufo-Addo announced that government has begun the distribution of free meals to cover 400,000 Ghanaians in locked-down areas amidst the coronavirus outbreak in the country.
In his address to the nation, the President admitted the hardship the partial lockdown has brought on the majority of Ghanaians. However, he said there was the need to meet the people, especially, the vulnerable in the society half way by providing food packages and hot meals to minimize their vulnerability.
“We are in difficult times, and that is why I directed the Minister of Finance to send to Parliament the Coronavirus Alleviation Programme (CAP), whose objective is to protect households and livelihoods, support micro, small, and medium-sized businesses, minimize job losses, and source additional funding for promotion of industries to shore up and expand industrial output for domestic consumption and exports”, he noted.
He added “through this Programme, the Ministries of Gender, Children and Social Protection and Local Government and Rural Development, and the National Disaster Management Organization (NADMO), working with MMDCEs and the faith-based organizations, have begun to provide food for up to 400,000 individuals and homes in the affected areas of the restrictions. This begun in Accra today and will begin in Kumasi tomorrow. It will come in the form of dry food packages and hot meals and will be delivered to vulnerable communities in Accra, Tema, Kumasi and Kasoa”.
