At least 22 million Ghanaians have had their incomes reduced since March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Ghana, a report by the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) said.
This makes up 77.4 percent of the total household population in the country, the government statistician, Professor Samuel Kobina Annim noted at a press conference on Thursday, July 30, 2020.
The GSS in a research report titled ‘Brief on COVID-19 Households and Jobs Tracker – Wave 1,’ also revealed that 82.8% of households who reported non-farm family business (36.1%) as an income source said they experienced a decrease in income since March 16, 2020.
According to the GSS, there was general public anxiety, as 93.1% of households reported being worried about the effects of COVID-19 and 77.4% of households reported to be severely affected by increase in prices of food.”
To cope with the effects of COVID-19, more than half (52.1%) of households reduced food consumption as 27.0% of children scheduled for a vaccination since March 16, missed it due to COVID-19 related reasons, the report noted.
Adding to the data, school closure was considered among the main disruptions to households, but 96.6% of children are likely to return once schools reopen with 35.0% of basic school children and 28.0% of SHS were not engaged in any form of learning while they were at home.
“The biggest challenge faced by children for home learning is access to basic tools such as computers or phones; 25.6% for basic school children and 32.7% for SHS children.”
The report further added that over half (57.4%) of children 6-14 years on school feeding programmes (29.9%) still received these meals after schools closed.
The GSS said from June 10 to June 25, 2020, it collected data in a nationally representative telephone survey to gauge the effects of COVID-19 on households and jobs in Ghana.
Source: Daily Mail GH
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