Beaches in and around Accra which are usually filled with revelers during holidays and weekends, laid quiet this Easter Monday.
The Khebab grill stands, loud music, horses and other attractions were absent as most people stayed home to observe the national holiday and the Christian festival during the partial lockdown.
The Ghana News.Agency visited the various beaches on Easter Monday including the La Pleasure and Laboma, Nordsee and Feehi Valley beaches at Korle-Gonno for first hand information.
The rest are; Shinning Beach, Sango and Shushu Beach Resort in Teshie Nungua.
People were deterred from visiting the beaches because they were informed that security personnel would be at post.
At the Labadi Beach, six security personnel were seen on patrol.
However a few people suspected to be managers of the various facilities at the beach were seen doing petty works around their facilities.
At the Afia Beach, behind the Black Star Square, all gates to the beach were closed with the police and military personnel at post.
However, at the Chorkor beach, residents of the community were seen swimming and having fun apparently due to the absence of the security services at that point in time.
The Ghana News Agency later observed that all of a sudden, they had abandoned their merry making and were running away to escape arrest when a team of military men were seen approaching.
Per the directives of the Ghana Tourism Authority and the Ghana Police Service, the public had been asked to stay off beaches in the country,
The Ghana Tourism Authority (GTA) on March 24, 2020 begun a nationwide enforcement exercise to ensure that beaches were closed in the wake of controlling the spread of the novel Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic.
The exercise followed a directive issued by the GTA ordering the closure of all beaches in the country to ensure that the social distancing directive given by the President and the Ghana Health Service were adhered to.
In a statement signed by Superintendent of Police Sheilla Kessie Abayie-Buckman, Director of Public Affairs, and copied to the Ghana News Agency in Accra on Sunday April 12, 2020, the leadership of the Police urged the public to note that gathering at any beach in Ghana amounts to an offence in accordance with the Imposition of Restrictions Act, 2020 (Act 1012) and consequential orders.
The order, however, exempted security service personnel or essential service providers whose presence at the beaches might be necessary to provide security or for public safety.
“All other persons found at any beach from now onward and within the period of imposition of restrictions on public gathering or movement will be arrested,” it cautioned.
In its efforts, the Authority together with the Ghana Police Service, Swat Unit and the military served management of beaches closure notices and encouraged them to ward off mass revelers.
As at the 2100 hours of Sunday April 12, 2020, Ghana had recorded 566 cases COVID-19, with eight deaths and four recoveries
