Covid-19: Playing football in the midst of a lockdown?

Christabel Osei-Boateng |Photo: Courtesy Christabel

By: Christabel Osei-Boateng, P4H focal person of La Nkwantanag Madina Municipality

In line with directives given by the president and the Ghana health service to combat the COVID-19 pandemic, citizens have been advised to wash their hands and use hand sanitizers regularly and most importantly observe social distancing. A partial lockdown is being embarked on in Greater Accra and Kumasi regions.

Amidst these directives, some inhabitants of Madina new road, a suburb of the La Nkwantanag Madina Municipality seem unconcerned about social distancing. For these inhabitants, life still goes on as it has always been even with the presence of COVID-19, they simply can’t adjust to accommodate these directives. 

It is 11:30 am on 1st April 2020 and the football park behind the Queen of Peace Roman Catholic Church is occupied with about 20 men, some engaged in a football match, others as spectators and another set engaged in a draught or checker game. Although this meets the criteria for social gatherings which is pegged at 25 people, these persons were in close contact with each other.

These scenes made me wonder whether all citizens truly understand the destructive nature of COVID-19 to human lives and more importantly whether the partial lockdown is in our own interest as citizens.