Parliament

Some Members of Parliament (MP) are calling for a suspension of sitting after health authorities announced six cases of coronavirus in Ghana.

They say every institution, including parliament, should be respecting the president’s directive for a limitation of large gatherings.

Hon. Kwabena Mintah Akandoh, Ranking Member - Parliament Select Committee on Health
Hon. Kwabena Mintah Akandoh, Ranking Member – Parliament Select Committee on Health

Ranking Member of the Health Committee and MP for Juaboso, Kwabena Mintah Akandoh, raised the issue for suspension of sitting on the Floor of Parliament, Monday.

“We should be working. But congregating or coming together on the floor of the House, I believe, is not the best,” Mr Akandoh told Joy News.

He described as loose government’s latest measures including travel ban to stop spread of the coronavirus.

Hon. Akandoh said  the restriction on flights from countries with more than 200 cases should have been tighter and provisions to allow for people arriving from abroad to self quarantine is not the best.

Rather, he wants the government to be more serious with the preventive measures  by intensifying public education and providing logistics to fight the virus.

Parliament has introduced thermometers to check the temperatures of MPs and guests before they enter the chamber as part of measures to prevent a spread of the virus. Hand sanitisers have also been distributed all over the premises.

There have been concerns the close proximity within which MPs sit, and the fact that a lot of them have been abroad and back recently puts a lot of them at risk of contracting and spreading the disease.

Ningo Prampram MP, Samuel George, has called for the mass screening of all MPs who have been abroad recently, warning they pose a danger to their colleagues.