A cleaner worker cleans the pavement of Plaza Mayor square in Madrid downtown, Spain, Wednesday, March 18, 2020. Spain will mobilize 200 billion euros or the equivalent to one fifth of the country's annual output in loans, credit guarantees and subsidies for workers and vulnerable citizens, Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez announced Tuesday. For most people, the new coronavirus causes only mild or moderate symptoms. For some, it can cause more severe illness, especially in older adults and people with existing health problems. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)

A former director-general of the Ghana Health Service Dr Elias Sory has reiterated the need for an immediate lockdown in the efforts to control the spread of coronavirus.

According to him, further delays could create problems and compromise the national efforts to mitigate the spread of the virus.

“The lockdown may not affect every area, the areas we leave out we just monitor them. The earlier we take the action the better. We are all in danger and we must take the collective action to protect ourselves and our loved ones. Our health system is fragile,” he told Francis Abban on the Morning Starr Thursday.

The call comes a day after the Ghana Medical Association (GMA) reiterated their call for a lockdown.

In a statement, the GMA said being fully conscious of the threat posed by this pandemic and the disturbing trend of community spread and the obvious inadequate of capacity (logistic and human resource) of the nation’s health system to deal with increased numbers of COVID-19 infection especially in the severe to critical cases, the President must declare a Nationwide Lockdown with the exception of essential services with immediate effect.

The call by the GMA came after one more person died of coronavirus in Ghana bringing the total number of recorded deaths from the virus to three.

The deceased is a wife of a Rear Admiral in the Ghana Armed forces. She died at the isolation centre at the 37 military hospital in Accra Wednesday.

Below is the full statement by the GMA