Question

Indeed, all that Government is doing is intended to achieve five (5) key objectives – limit and stop the importation of the virus; contain its spread; provide adequate care for the sick; limit the impact of the virus on social and economic life; and inspire the expansion of our domestic capability and deepen our self-reliance. It is important to state, at the very onset, that scientists at the University of Ghana have successfully sequenced genomes of the virus responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic, obtaining important information about the genetic composition of viral strains in fifteen (15) of the confirmed cases in Ghana. This is a significant milestone in Ghana’s response to the pandemic, as it will strengthen surveillance for tracking mutations of the virus, and aid in the tracing of the sources of community infections in people with no known contact with confirmed cases.

Government has also introduced the use of drones to expedite the transportation of samples to laboratory centres. On Friday, 17th April, for example, fifty-one (51) samples were delivered from the Omenako Drone Distribution Centre to Noguchi. Furthermore, we are introducing rapid results testing to augment our surveillance and enhanced contact tracing efforts, so that we can quickly isolate and treat confirmed cases. From the sixty-eight thousand, five hundred and ninety-one (68,591) samples tested, we have been able to understand better the dynamism of the virus, map out its geographic footprint, and establish current and potential hotspots. We have also been able to isolate and educate asymptomatic carriers, and, thereby, help minimise the spread of the virus.

So far, it has been established that the virus was imported into our midst from foreign shores, and is being spread through person to person contact. The majority of persons infected in Ghana have mild to no symptoms at all, whilst a very small number have required hospital treatment, out of which nine (9) persons, with underlying ailments, have died.

  

Towards treatment, we have expanded and added to our network of COVID-19 treatment centres, with the Ga East and Bank of Ghana Hospitals being one hundred percent (100%) dedicated to the fight. In addition, we have set aside separate COVID-19 treatment centres at the University of Ghana Medical School Hospital, the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital, Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital, Kumasi South Hospital, and in other designated Regional and District Hospitals. Last Friday, I was honoured to do the virtual sod-cutting ceremony for the construction of a 100-bed Infectious Disease and Isolation Facility at the Ga East Municipal Hospital, which is being funded through a public-private partnership, under the leadership of the Ghana COVID-19 Private Sector Fund., and whose construction, with the assistance of the 48-Engineer Regiment of the Ghana Armed Forces, will be completed in six (6) weeks. Members of the Private Sector Fund have, indeed, acted like citizens, and not spectators, in these testing times for our country, and their patriotism is to be loudly praised.

We have also scaled up the domestic production of personal protective equipment, and our health care facilities, so far, have taken delivery of fourteen thousand, five hundred and fifty (14,550) scrubs, eleven thousand, nine hundred (11,900) gowns, nineteen thousand, nine hundred and eighty (19,980) head covers, two hundred and sixty-three thousand, two hundred and eighty-one (263,281) nose masks, thirteen thousand, and two (13,002) N-95 nose masks. Forty-one thousand, one hundred and seventeen (41,117) varying sizes of sanitizers have also been produced locally and delivered to our health facilities.

The enhancement of our capacity to test has been made possible by the dedication of the expanded teams at Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research, the Kumasi Centre for Collaborative Research, and the National Public Health Reference Laboratory. Further, we are making significant investments in the laboratories at the Veterinary Laboratory, Accra, the Centre for Scientific and Industrial Research Laboratory, Accra, the Police Hospital, the 37 Military Hospitals, the University of Health and Allied Sciences in Ho, the Veterinary Services Department in Sekondi-Takoradi, the Public Health Laboratory in Tamale, the War Memorial Hospital in Navrongo and the Cape Coast Teaching Hospital, so they can also use PCR Technology. We are recalibrating one hundred (100) Regional and District Tuberculosis Gene Expert

Laboratories across the country, to help ensure that we have a minimum situation of one testing centre per region.

Fellow Ghanaians, in view of our ability to undertake aggressive contact tracing of infected persons, the enhancement of our capacity to test, the expansion in the numbers of our treatment and isolation centres, our better understanding of the dynamism of the virus, the ramping up of our domestic capacity to produce our own personal protective equipment, sanitisers and medicines, the modest successes chalked at containing the spread of the virus in Accra and Kumasi, and the severe impact on the poor and vulnerable, I have taken the decision to lift the three (3) week old restriction on movements in the Greater Accra Metropolitan Area and Kasoa, and the Greater Kumasi Metropolitan Area and its contiguous districts, with effect from 1am on Monday, 20th April. In effect, tomorrow will see the partial lockdown in Accra and Kumasi being lifted.

(Excerpt of the Speech delivered by the President of Ghana on the 19th April, 2020)

The President made several arguments to support his reasons to end the Partial lockdown;

a) Couch THREE of these arguments from the speech each to reflect deductive argument and inductive argument.

b) Identify and explain THREE functions of language employed by the President in his speech.

c) Provide TWO reasons why you think the President speech contains or does not contain fallacies.

Answer 1

Sol:

a).

The deductive argument assumes that all conditions are perfect and makes conclusions accordingly. Inductive arguments have some measure of possibility that the argument is true.  In this speech, the decision to lift the restrictions on normal life, on the assumption that the spread of the virus is under control and the research against the virus is in the final stage are examples of deductive arguments whereas the reference about the steps taken to bring down the spread of the virus and the current situation in the country are examples of inductive arguments. The construction of health care facilities exclusively for COVID 19 patients within 6 weeks can be considered as a deductive argument. Likewise, the statement about self-sufficiency in testing, producing sanitizers, masks, drugs, etc are deductive in nature. The methods adopted for controlling the community spreading of the disease, like rapid testing, granting funds to enhance healthcare and test facilities in the country, use of drones to transport the samples to the laboratories, etc are inductive in nature.

b).

The functions of language comprise seven factors; viz; Instrumental, Regulatory, Interactional, Personal, Heuristic, Imaginative, and representational. The instrumental factor is used to express people's needs and desire to get things done. The regulatory factor tells others about what action is required. The interactional factor is used to form relationship with others. The personal factor is used to express feelings, opinions, etc. The heuristic factor is used to gain knowledge about the environment. The imaginative factor is used to tell stories, jokes, etc. The representational factor of language is used to convey facts and information.

In this speech, the language used by the president contains the factors of representation, regulatory, and instrumental. The speech gives information about the current situation in the country and what steps action should be taken to overcome it. It also provides what people of the country desires to be done by the authorities.

c).

The speech of the president contains some fallacies . It is evident from his haste and overconfident action to lift the restrictions in the country. Even though no vaccine or antidotes are invented against COVID 19, he declares that they have made considerable improvements in the research of the genome of the vaccine. The construction of an advanced health facility by the army in just six weeks is another example of overconfidence.