The Deputy Bono Regional Director for Public Health, Dr John Ekow Otoo, has urged parents and guardians to adhere to COVID-19 protocols in order for their children and wards to emulate, to protect themselves and others around them in schools.
This he explained that, children easily followed the behaviour of their parents and as such it was imperative for parents to always wear nose or face masks to motivate their children to do so.
Dr Otoo, speaking in an interview, implored parents to teach their children proper handwashing with soap and frequent use of alcohol-based hand sanitisers to prevent the spread of the viral disease.
Touching on COVID cases in relation to the reopening of schools, he emphasised that, the region has not recorded any suspected COVID-19 infection among school children since school re-opened. However, he cautioned that, the school environment could trigger the spread of the pandemic if children were not well protected. Hence, the need for parents and guardians to provide alcohol-based sanitisers and nose masks to their children before they left home for school.
Dr Otoo explained that, the COVID-19 Regional Response Team, in collaboration with School Health Coordinators of the Ghana Health Service, have put in place pragmatic measures and intensified monitoring to reduce the risk of infection in schools.
He, therefore, called on educational authorities to ensure that all suspected cases of coronavirus are immediately reported to the response team for attention and advised the public to avoid self-medication when they fell sick.
On the use of hand sanitisers, Dr Otoo advised the public to use enough sanitisers to rub their hands and between their fingers before the alcoholic content dried up.
He said the GHS and health workers were doing their best to prevent the spread of the disease in schools and the Region and appealed to everybody to adhere to the health safety protocols for their good.
Meanwhile, on COVID-19 transmission, Immunologist and Research Fellow at the West African Centre for Cell Biology of Infectious Pathogens, University of Ghana, Dr Yaw Bediako, has cautioned the general public against social gatherings.
Dr Yaw Bediako observed that one sure way of transmitting the coronavirus is at such meetings and wants Ghanaians to note that Covid-19 is not a respecter of persons or care about the reasons for being at a gathering.
“I think we seriously need to consider restrictions on the social gathering.
“We’ve made a lot of noise about whether it is church, political campaigning or registration but the virus doesn’t care why you are in a social gathering.”
Speaking on if the ban on gatherings will negatively affect religious gatherings such as the Church and Mosque where people may want to meet to intercede in prayers, he disclosed that, so far as there is a gathering there will be a spread and cautioned against such gatherings.
“The bottom line is if you have a lot of people in a congested place, no matter what you are doing, you are spreading the virus.
“So, I think we need to move the discourse away from is it political, is it registration, is it church, is it a party.”
Dr Bediako urged the general public to adhere strictly to the Covid-19 protocols to ensure that the rise in the number of active cases in the country is quickly contained.
