A number of parents have advocated the closure of public and civil service institutions to enable them keep eyes on their children as government temporarily closes down schools.
They argued that it was not enough if parents would only have to go to work to contract the disease and go home to spread it to their children.
The parents who were randomly interviewed by the Ghana News Agency (GNA) in Bolgatanga passed these arguments and said critical observation of the school children clearly showed they were more exposed, however, the preventive measures adopted by government would be more effective, if the parents stayed at home and guided their children.
Mrs Juliana Abilba, a mother of four children at Fountain Gate International School (FGIS) in Bolgatanga said even though the President took a bold decision to close down private and public schools, the directive was not preventive enough to stop the virus from infecting families, especially children.
She said the normal practice was that parents sent their wards to school, and gave care time to teachers, “but as we speak now, we have to leave the children at home without anyone to care for them and we can’t also take them to the office”.
She therefore proposed to government to temporarily close public institutions to protect the citizenry, especially families from contracting the disease.
Mr Henry Adivila, a businessman who deals in pharmaceuticals, said he appreciated the President’s directives, “however, it may not yield the desired results should the children be left at home and parents go to work to contract and spread the disease at home”
He proposed a strict closure of all public institutions for a period of two weeks to reduce physical contacts to invariably reduce infections of the coronavirus and keep citizens safe.
Mr Solomon Adongo Alemiya a Banker was worried that the insecurity in leaving children alone at home at this crucial moments of the spread of the disease and said extension of the temporal closure of public institutions was one key factor that could effectively minimise the spread of the disease.
He expressed worry that the exposure bankers had in rendering services to clients and said bankers were more exposed “as we directly deal with clients, we are even exposed more in spite of all the preventive measures being taken by the bank, because we still have to assist clients to fill their loan forms, they stay with us all these while, they touch the tables other clients follow suit and many more come in a day”.
According to Mr Alemiya, “government should extend closure to all public institutions including; the banks” and suggested that the banks “should keep skeletal staff and ensure that ATMS were functioning to reduce human to human contact”.
The Ghana News Agency sought public opinion to measure citizens take on the President’s announcement on closure of schools and limitations to some social gatherings and how the directive was affecting the citizenry.
