Otherwise, the president said he would impose another partial deadlock, despite concerns about what this would do for one of West Africa’s largest economies.
“Our Covid-19 treatment centers have gone from having zero patients to being full due to the increase in infections,” said the president. “At this current pace … our healthcare infrastructure will be overwhelmed.”
Across Africa, a second wave of coronavirus infects twice as many people a day as at the height of last year’s first wave and has not yet peaked, according to the African Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Growth has raised concerns across the continent, where, unlike Europe and the United States, non-cash governments have failed to secure supply deals with vaccine manufacturers, placing responsibility for isolation for the time being.
Akufo-Addo said details about access to vaccines and an implementation plan will be announced “very soon.”
He said some people arriving from abroad gave positive results for “new variants” of the virus, without giving details.
“Work is underway to determine the presence and extent of the spread of new variants in the general population,” Akufo-Addo said.