The Director for Africa Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC), Dr John Nkengasong, has urged the public to ensure compliance to the preventive measure against COVID-19 pandemic.

According to him, it is pertinent for everyone to continually wear the masks, wash their hands and practice social distancing.

He made this revelation at the collaborative launch of the campaign ‘One More Push’ with Telco operator, MTN Group.

“With third and fourth waves of Covid-19 sweeping across parts of Africa, we cannot overstate the importance of everyone doing their best right now to keep the virus at bay.

“This campaign aims to encourage people to keep practising the preventative measures we know can limit the spread of Covid-19.”

“As we continue with the distribution of vaccines across the continent, we all need to keep focused on overcoming Covid-19.

“We implore all of Africa’s people to keep it up – let’s all give it one more push.”

On his part, MTN Group President and CEO Ralph Mupita, explained that MTN is committed to the health and wellness of the continent.

“The ‘One More Push’ campaign is about encouraging the people of Africa to remain vigilant in fighting Covid-19, at a time when we are experiencing new waves of infections, and vaccination progress towards herd immunity is still some time away for our people”.

The ‘One More Push’ campaign

Essentially, the “One More Push” is a renewed drive to encourage the public not to give up. It asks that all of us keep our masks on, wash or sanitise our hands, and maintain a physical distance from each other until it is safe to no longer do so.

In this way, we will be able to get back to the ‘old normal’ (or the best possible version of it) sooner, rather than later.

The awareness campaign is an extension of the African Union’s ‘Adapted Africa Joint Continental Strategy for Covid-19 Pandemic’. It is endorsed by Africa’s Health Ministers and aligned to the ‘Prevent, Monitor and Treat’ approach.

A key part of the campaign is onemorepushafrica.com, a digital content hub of credible and authoritative third-party content covering all things related to Covid-19.

This includes facts around getting vaccinated, advice from leading healthcare bodies and medical experts, and important information from the Africa CDC.

Also, the campaign is equally an extension of the partnership between the Africa CDC and MTN. This includes the rollout of Covid-19 vaccines to health workers across the continent through the Group’s $25 million donation.

Africa CDC confirmed Ghana’s South African variant case

In January, the Africa Center for Disease Control (CDC) confirmed Ghana to be amongst countries on the continent to have recorded the new South African variant.

According to the continental body the new variant is “more transmissible than previously circulating variants, with high viral shedding.”

In a statement issued it noted that although it doesn’t readily have a full appreciation of the extent of spread of the new variants in Africa, it had confirmed that the 501Y.V2 has since been recorded in 22 countries including Ghana.

Other countries in Africa that have confirmed infections from the new South Africa variant are Botswana and Zambia.