Some Members of Parliament (MPs) have called for a suspension of parliamentary sitting in wake of the recent coronavirus outbreak in Ghana.

According to them, every institution including parliament should be respecting the president's directive for a limitation on large gatherings.

The Ghana Health Service (GHS) has confirmed four new cases of Coronavirus (Covid-19) in the country.

This was disclosed by the GHS in a news briefing on the outbreak at the Information Ministry on Sunday, March 15, 2020. The four new cases, brings the total of confirmed Covid-19 cases in Ghana to six. 

The president, Nana Akufo-Addo Danquah, due to the recent developments banned certain institutions, social gatherings and activities that might cause the coronavirus disease to further spread.

“I have decided in the interest of public safety and the protection of our population to review the public gathering advisories earlier announced as follows. Firstly, all public gatherings including conferences, workshops, funerals, festivals, political rallies, sporting events and religious activities, such as services in churches and mosques, have been suspended for the next four (4) weeks. Private burials are permitted, but with limited numbers, not exceeding twenty-five (25) in attendance,” the President said, in an address to the country on Sunday, March 15.

In reference to the president’s directive, the MP for Juaboso Kwabena Mintah Akandoh and Bawku Central MP Mahama Ayariga are making a case for the suspension of sitting.

Mr. Ayariga in an interview with Accra based JoyNews said; “I am of the view that if we are going to respect the president’s directive that a gathering should not exceed 25, and we are 275 plus speaker and clerks, then we should also not be sitting.

“That’s what I think. Under the rules, the speaker can designate how we can sit differently.”

READ ALSO:

Coronavirus: Group Urges EC to Shelve New Register Plans over Outbreak

He said MPs being infected will be dangerous for the country because they interact with a wide range of people.

“If we prevent ourselves from being infected, we will be saving others because we interact with a lot of our constituents,” the Bawku Central MP added.

The Juaboso MP holds a similar opinion. Asked whether sitting should be suspended, he said: “I am tempted to believe so that we should be going in that direction.”

“We should be working. But congregating or coming together on the floor of the house, I believe, is not the best,” Mr. Mintah Akandoh told Joy News.

Parliament has introduced thermometers to check the temperatures of MPs and guests before they enter into the chamber as part of measures to prevent a spread of the virus.

Hand sanitizers have also been distributed all over the premises.

There have been concerns the close proximity within which MPs sit, and the fact that a lot of them have been abroad and back recently puts a lot of them at risk of contracting and spreading the disease.