Government to announce additional measures ahead of Christmas

 The government will, Sunday afternoon, announce additional measures to control the COVID-19 spread ahead of the Christmas festivities.

The measures will focus on securing Ghana’s ports, especially the Airport, in the wake of a possible fourth wave in Europe and South Africa, a statement signed and issued by the Deputy Minister of Information, Ms Fatimatu Abubakar, and copied to the Ghana News Agency, said.

It said the Government would also use the opportunity to update the country on the progress of its COVID-19 Vaccination Programme.

Some European countries have imposed stricter COVID-19 restrictions amid a fourth wave that has intensified vaccination efforts.

In the past week, a heavily mutated COVID variant has been identified, named; Omicron, and labelled a “variant of concern” by the World Health Organisation.

It has been detected in countries including the United Kingdom and since its detection several nations including the United States and the UK banned travel from South Africa and surrounding countries.

The new travel restrictions announced by President Joe Biden, last Friday, will buy the US Federal Government more time to investigate the new Omicron variant, officials say.

UK’s Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, has equally introduced measures to combat the Omicron variant after two cases were confirmed in Britain.

The Prime Minister said the restrictions, which included strict travel rules, would be reviewed in three weeks at the start of the school holidays.

He said he was confident this year’s celebrations would be “considerably better than last Christmas” when families were banned from mixing.