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Senior Minister tests COVID-19 positive …as Ghana’s case load reaches 21,968
Ghana’s cases of the Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has increased to 21,968, following 891 newly confirmed cases as at July 4, the Ghana Health Service (GHS) has announced.
The Senior Minister, Yaw Osafo-Maafo, is among the latest victim to be tested of COVID-19 and was being treated of the disease from home according to the GHS.
As at July 4, 2020, 891 new cases had been recorded in 72 districts in 13 regions in the country, increasing the country’s tally of the COVID-19 to 21,968, the Director of the GHS, Dr Patrick Kuma-Aboagye, announced when he took his turn at the press briefing yesterday.
Out of the number, 17,150 recovered, with 4,683 cases still active, while 129 deaths have been recorded, Dr Kuma-Aboagye said.
The Director of the GHS also said that there were 22 severe cases out of which six were in critical condition.
The Greater Accra Region recorded 579 new cases with the Ashanti Region recording 93 cases. Western Region had 86 cases, Bono had 49, Northern Region had 26 and the Central Region had 25 cases.
Meanwhile the Eastern Region has 18 cases, Western North and Savannah regions recorded four cases while the Upper West recorded three cases with Bono East recording two and Volta Region with one case.
The Upper East Region, North East Region, and Ahafo Region all recorded no new cases.
Source: Ghanaian Times
The Member of Parliament for Nsawam Adoagyiri, Frank Annoh Dompreh, has expressed concern over delays in the release of the District Assemblies Common Fund, warning that the situation is stalling development across the country.
On his facebook page, he described as a matter of urgent national importance, the Minority Chief Whip pointed to what he sees as a growing crisis of unpaid contractors, abandoned projects, and halted infrastructure works in many districts.
He noted that several communities are grappling with half completed schools, unfinished health facilities, abandoned markets, deteriorating roads, and stalled sanitation projects.
According to him, many contractors who have executed projects for district assemblies have not been paid, forcing some construction firms to demobilise from sites while workers lose their jobs.
He stressed that the District Assemblies Common Fund is not a discretionary allocation but a constitutional requirement under Article 252 of the 1992 Constitution, intended to support development at the local level.
In his view, years of delayed releases and accumulated arrears have weakened district development financing and disrupted projects meant to improve living conditions in communities.
He further argued that some payments made in recent years were largely the settlement of old debts rather than funding for new or ongoing projects, a situation he believes has affected contractor confidence and local economic activity.
He described the issue as more than a budgetary challenge, characterising it as a development emergency and a governance concern.
He therefore urged the appropriate authorities to pay outstanding DACF arrears, settle contractors who have completed their work, and ensure that transfers to districts are automatic and predictable.
He maintained that decentralisation can only succeed when district assemblies receive adequate and timely funding to carry out development projects.
He emphasised that stalled projects directly affect ordinary citizens, since they rely on such infrastructure for education, healthcare, transportation, sanitation, and economic activities.
He called for renewed attention to grassroots development, insisting that national progress should not be concentrated only in major cities but extended to all communities.
By: Jacob Aggrey
Richard Appiah, the footballer who killed two children and stored part of their bodies in a fridge at Abesim in the Bono Region in 2021 has been handed a lifetime sentence.
This was after a five member panel of judges at the Accra High Court returned a verdict of guilty against the convict.
Appiah, 32, also a draughtsman would spend the rest of his life in prison after he was convicted of murder.
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BY MALIK SULLEMANA
