Wearing of facemask is voluntary effective March 28

President Nana Addo Dankwa Akuffo Addo says the wearing of facemasks is no longer mandatory effective Monday, March 28.

The President who said this in his 28th televised address to the nation on measures taken against the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic encouraged all to continue to maintain enhanced hand hygiene practices and avoid overcrowded gatherings.

He stated that the review in the wearing of face mask was part of the Government’s comprehensive review of the raft of measures put in place to help win the fight against the virus.

“This review is premised on the background of rapidly declining infections, the relative success of the vaccination campaign being supervised by the Ghana Health Service (GHS) and the increased capacity developed in the public and private health sectors over the last two years,” he said.

President Akuffo Addo said as of Friday, 25th March 2022, the total number of active COVID-19 cases stood at 72, with no severely or critically ill persons.

He said presently, the nation’s COVID-19 treatment centres were empty, the fourth wave appears to be over, in addition to the low reported cases, considerable improvement in the availability and uptake of vaccines by the population.

He said although the country had not achieved its national vaccination coverage target, reasonable vaccination coverages had been achieved in the hotspots of infections, particularly in the urban areas of Greater Accra and Greater Kumasi.

The President said the Government was determined to use all means to increase the deployment of vaccination across the country to achieve the national target of vaccinating 20 million Ghanaians by June this year.

He encouraged persons who have not received the jab to do so, saying

“To those listening to the propaganda by the conspiracy theorists and those who are still sceptical about the efficacy of the vaccine, it has been a year since my wife and I got vaccinated; it has not disrupted our physical wellbeing, neither has it caused us to be sick. We are touch wood, hale and hearty, like the other 13.1 million Ghanaians who have been vaccinated,”.

President Akuffo Addo said so far, Ghana had acquired nearly 29 million COVID-19 vaccine doses with 13.1 million doses administered as of 26th March 2022.

Data on the GHS COVID-19 update page also showed that as of March 24, Ghana had recorded 160,925 COVID-19 infections, 159,409 recoveries and 1,445 deaths.