In the early parts of this year, especially starting from mid-January, the whole world was struck with a pandemic that came as “ghost” and seems to have, yet, put the world in so much distress and unrest. This pandemic is known as the novel coronavirus, otherwise called COVID-19.
It is known to have started from Wuhan, a city in China, and later spread to almost every part of the World. Italy unfortunately became most victimized until recently when the United states topped with both number of cases reported and number of deaths. Currently, more than three million people are infected with close to 250,000 deaths.
Africa has had its own share along the line in mid-February drawing down to March.
Ghana’s first case was recorded in the first week of March, forcing the President to put a ban on public gatherings including, funerals, parties, churches, schools, among others.
Expected the bans were though, it came early for many Ghanaians as some thought the virus was rather far away from us. The pandemic, as we have come to know, takes no time in spreading, as long as human beings keep moving and meeting people.
To take measures against it, on Saturday, March 28, 2019, the President of the republic, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo announced a partial lockdown, which took effect from Monday, 30 March in Accra, Kumasi, Tema and Kasoa. This effectively kept many people at home, including partners – both married and unmarried. The goal was to prevent the spread and give government the chance to embark on massive contact tracing and testing exercise.
But some had different goals. Four weeks down the line and interesting things are happening, it looks like boredom breeds so much intimacy, no doubt, no debate now. Due to restriction of movements, people felt a bit relaxed and too comfortable.
According to a TV3 news report, many women came out of the lock down heavy, yes pregnant. We don’t know whether it was due to over excitement of getting a free holiday, thanks to the coronavirus; or it was due to idleness or boredom that gave couples more time to make babies. Contraceptives, pills and many ways of consciously looking to prevent pregnancies were overlooked.
In the next nine months, we look forward to seeing many ‘corona babies’. So, despite the negativity of the virus, we have something positive to expect – new additions to the population.
Let us all play our parts and work together as we look forward to eradicating this pandemic in due time.
The writer is a student of the Ghana Institute of Journalism
