If they do, the president said he would impose another partial blockade, despite concerns about what it would do to one of West Africa’s largest economies.
“Our Covid-19 treatment centers have stopped having any patients and are now full because of the increase in infections,” said the president. “At the current rate … our health infrastructure will be overloaded.”
Across Africa, a second wave of coronavirus is infecting twice as many people a day as it was at the height of last year’s first wave and has yet to peak, according to the African Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The increase has raised concern across the continent, where, unlike Europe and the United States, cash-strapped governments have failed to secure supply agreements with vaccine manufacturers, putting responsibility for the moment in restraint.
Akufo-Addo said details about access to vaccines and an implementation plan will be announced “very soon”.
He said some people who arrived from abroad had tested positive for “new variants” of the virus, without giving details.
“Work is underway to determine the presence and extent of the spread of the new variants in the general population,” said Akufo-Addo.