Policy Responses to the COVID-19 Crisis in Ghana: Preliminary Assessment

Abstract

The World Health Organization (WHO) officially declared the Coronavirus Virus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) to be a public health emergency of international concern on January 30. With inadequate knowledge about the nature of the problem (mechanisms of transmission), Ghana implemented one of the most comprehensive non-pharmaceutical and precautionary policy initiatives. The strategies have proved satisfactory in efforts to control and combat the virus. The success chalked by Ghana has been hailed by the international community and the stakeholders in the health sector with calls for the adoption and replication of these strategies by other countries. Using process tracing/ qualitative archival data and under the lens of John Kingdon’s Multiple Streams Framework (MSF), this article examines the Ghanaian government policy responses from the first month of the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic to the end of the extraordinary situation on October 31, 2020, amidst polarization along partisan lines.