COVID-19: Three months tax holiday for all health workers – Akufo-Addo

Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

President Akufo-Addo has announced a three-month tax holiday for all health workers to motivate them in the fight against COVID-19.

Addressing the nation on Sunday, the president also added that “an insurance package, with an assured sum of three hundred and fifty thousand cedis (GH¢350,000) for each health personnel and allied professional at the forefront of the fight, has been put in place, with a daily allowance of one hundred and fifty cedis (GH¢150) being paid to contact tracers.”

He added: “Government has also decided that all health workers will not pay taxes on their emoluments for the next three months, i.e. April, May and June. Furthermore, all frontline health workers will receive an additional allowance of fifty percent (50%) of their basic salary per month, i.e. for March, April, May and June.

“The March allowance will be paid alongside that of April. The Ministry of Transport is also making available, for free, ‘Aayalolo’ buses to convey health workers in Accra, Tema, Kumasi and Kasoa to and from work, along specific routes, for the entire duration of the restrictions.
I am happy that operators of public transport, such as trotros and taxis, are largely adhering to the admonition to observe social distancing in their vehicles. Each one of them should do so.”

READ PRESIDENT’s FULL SPEECH HERE

Cases in Ghana

Ghana has confirmed nine new cases of COVID-19, health officials have said.

This brings the total number of cases in Ghana to 214 as of April 5, 2020.

An update by the Ghana Health Service stated that six of the cases were recorded in the country’s epicentre of the pandemic, Greater Accra while three are from the Ashanti region.

The Ghana Health Service (GHS) in a statement said, among the cases from Greater Accra, one is a 37-year-old woman with no history of travel nor contact with a confirmed case.

“One is a repeat test of a travellers under quarantine who was initially negative but converted to positive on a repeat test. Four are contacts of confirmed cases with no symptoms and were detected during the enhanced contact tracing and testing,” the statement added.

The GHS noted, “of the three cases from Ashanti region, two are Ghanaians who travelled to Ghana from France within the past 14 days and the third one is a Ghanaian who has no history of travel out of the country nor contact with any confirmed case.”

As of 4th April, 2020, Ghana has recorded a total of 214 cases of COVID-19 with five deaths.

“Currently, the number of regions reporting cases are as follows: Greater Accra, Ashanti, Northern, Upper West Eastern and Upper East Region.

The Greater Accra Region has most cases (189) followed by the Ashanti Region (12), Northern Region (10), Upper West Region (1), Eastern Region (1) and Upper East Region (1),” the GHS explained.

Most of the cases are reported from routine/enhanced surveillance activities.

Cases from travellers under mandatory quarantine are 90.

The Ghana Health Service indicated further that “all five deaths had underlying chronic medical conditions prior to COVID-19 infection.”

Source: Daily Mail GH