Mr Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, the Minister for Information, has called on the media to continuously remind members of the public that the country is not in normal times.

He said the citizenry should be reminded that the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic greatly affected activities in the country, adding that citizens needed to take a second look at some of the regular things they expected and asked for.

“That is why government has had to resort to introducing some revenue measures and cutting some expenses. So it cannot be business as usual, it is a time that calls for all of us to recognize the times in which we are, and to respond appropriately.”

Mr Nkrumah, who is also the Member of Parliament for the Ofoase-Ayirebi Constituency, made the call when he addressed journalists in Bolgatanga as part of his three-day tour of the North East, Upper East, Savannah, Upper West and Northern Regions.

The tour was intended to deepen the Information Ministry’s relationship with journalists across the Regions.

Mr Nkrumah said most people took it for granted that things were normal, and noted that the government gradually improved the economy from 2017 prior to the outbreak of COVID-19.

“If you have studied the trajectory of where we started from in 2017 and how gradually the Ghanaian economy has improved, and saw what COVID-19 did to us in 2020, you would appreciate that the disease has hit the Ghanaian economy and indeed the African and the global economy.”

He asked Ghanaians not to underestimate the seeming meagre successes that the country had gained through the leadership of the President in the COVID-19 period.

“The advice of the task force, the work of the media and the compliance of a good number of Ghanaians has brought the pandemic under control”.

He said government was working to fully open up the Ghanaian economy after the entire populace was vaccinated against COVID-19.

“Government will be doing its bit, we are hoping and calling on citizens to do their bit, but that means that you our colleagues in the media will also have to keep the public conversation in line with what is ongoing, and remind the public that we are not in ordinary times,” the Minister of Information said.

He appealed to the media to continuously remind members of the public not to lose sight that COVID-19 had hit businesses and begin to think that things were normal, but continue to heed to the preventive measures of the virus.

“In Christmas, when we all got a bit complacent and let our guard down, you saw what happened in the New Year. All of us got complacent, it is a shared responsibility. Now that the numbers are down, we should not get comfortable and complacent the second time.

“If we do, we may not be able to survive a third wave like we survived the first two. So as we speak of COVID-19, let us also continue to remind our audiences that it is important to continue to observe the preventive etiquettes so that we don’t suffer a third wave,” Mr Nkrumah said.