Lockdown - Day 2

Day 2 and Spain has recorded its worst numbers of death, 849. That just leaves one cold. A week ago on my Facebook page, I sent out a message to all health professionals the world over. Some of my friends who are doctors and nurses in the United Kingdom and in the United States, are on the frontline and each day I say a prayer for them. I also just heard that one of my favourite anchors on CNN has contracted Covid 19. You may all know Chris Cuomo the outspoken anchor whose programme is "Cuomo Prime Time". I missed an interview he did with his brother Governor Andrew Cuomo earlier today but I hear he is in good spirits. I wish him a speedy recovery.

Here in Ghana a lot of people have been complaining about how our medical staff do not have enough Personal Protective Equipment (PPE). Trust me it is worldwide! At midday a doctor in England was talking about how he had tried to improvise after seeing how the doctors in Lombardy were dressed by buying something similar to a Hazmat suit. He turned up at the health centre where he was supposed to start work and was told he could not wear that. He told them in that case he would not be willing to take the risk to work without it. Do I blame him? No I do not. In fact, there is a growing number of nurses who are refusing to go to work if PPEs are not made available to them.

Breaking news. Just saw on Sky News something different happening in Cotugno Hospital in Naples, Italy. The docotors are wearing not only the jumpsuits but a different mask altogether not the N95 masks. These masks have a full face shield so covers your entire face. Also they have a clearly marked lane with a red and white tape which demarcates the lane leading to the areas of infection and the lane leading to non infected areas. Nurses and other medical staff cannot cross but rather stay in their designated lane. There are even security guards on hand to ensure no-one crosses the line. A nurse prepared an injection and then passed it through a compartment to the doctors who were in the room with an infected patient who was crashing. He did not enter the room where the patient was hence minimising the risk of infection. A doctor who was interviewed said they had fought and fought until they got all their "high tech" PPEs. They are definitely my team of the day.

The Lockdown begins

Wow! What a couple of months it has been thanks to Covid 19. Personally I cannot believe how things have changed in such a short time. I went from catching up with the world news each morning and wondering when we in Ghana were going to be hit and it has happened!

I had been checking in with friends, first based in Milan and then friends both in Canada and the United States. Initially when I was speaking with friends in Canada, one in particular was a bit laid back about it and kept saying he had not heard anything from the Premier of his Province's office. A week later he called me in a panic: "Hey guess what? It is official! We all have to close down and stay at home..." I just could not resist and said; "I told you! 😏

There has been so much information flying around! Suddenly people have become mini news providers and are bombarding each other with everything from medical information to conspiracy theories. I have a rule whereby after 7pm, no-one should send me any news on Covid 19! At this point I am about to explode and will probably start muting certain people on my whatsapp messenger

So back to my heading, lockdown began at 0100hrs and today I noticed that there have been quite a number of people walking around. A bit strange as we were told to stay home mostly. I know provision has been made for people to be able to go shopping for water and food but it was a bit surprising because for some of us, a lockdown means just that! No coming or going. Ghana's lockdown covers certain cities that have been identified as the epicentres, namely, Accra,(the capital) Tema (one of our busy harbours and where the Greenwich Meridian passes through) Kumasi (home of the Ashanti King) and their environs. As to be expected, a number of people who had been working in Accra have vamoosed to the rural areas as they feel they will not be able to earn their daily bread now that most companies and amenities have been shut.

I saw a video just around bedtime that showed a truck carrying goods also had passengers, mainly women seated in between the cargo. Some of these women were pregnant and some had toddlers with them. How could they possibly travel in this vehicle, I asked myself? Could they even breathe? Apparently they got to a check point and the police could hear people shouting that is how come they were discovered. However I saw them climbing back on the truck after a little while and was shocked. Why oh why do people take such risks?