Across many nations, measures have been put in place to help fight the novel coronavirus that is seen to have spread rapidly. Notable among these measures, is the wearing of face masks. However, in Ghana, some citizens are not adhering to this measure raising concerns from the health service.
The General Director of the Ghana Health Service (GHS), Dr. Patrick Kuma-Aboagye has said that, the campaign to adhere to the wearing of face masks during this period must be intensified else Ghana’s gains in the fight against the disease will be derailed.
He said that the country risks recording high COVID-19 cases due to disregard for the wearing of face masks and a recent survey conducted by the service revealed that, only 14.4% of the population in the Greater Accra Region wears face masks.
Speaking at a press conference, Dr. Kuma-Aboagye, said
“Greater Accra is the one that is driving the pandemic in Ghana and so it is extremely important that we reset and go back and start wearing the mask so that as active cases are coming down, it will continue to go down. We started with one case and now over 43,000. Where we are now, we need to be very careful. That is our major worry and we need to intensify the campaign for wearing face masks.”
An earlier survey conducted by the Ghana Health Service in Accra noted that 82 per cent of the sampled population possessed face masks and had the intention to use them.
However, out of this number, the survey showed that only 44.3 percent of them use the face mask correctly.
Face Masks
Wearing of face masks has become mandatory because of the situation the novel corona virus presents to us. It is one of the preventive measures to help mitigate the spread of the virus from infected person or to just prevent one from getting the virus.
Wearing a face mask will help prevent the spread of infection and prevent the individual from contracting any airborne infectious germs. When someone coughs, talks, sneezes they could release germs into the air that may infect others nearby. Face masks are part of an infection control strategy to eliminate cross-contamination of the virus.
Other preventive measures to help in the corona virus fight was to maintain social distancing protocols, washing of hands regularly, sanitizing of hands among others.
As of Friday 28th August 2020, Ghana’s current confirmed cases stands at 43,841, New cases recorded are 72, Active cases stands at 1,325, Recoveries are 42, 246 and deaths recorded so far are 270.
