Dr Patrick Kuma-Aboagye, Director General of the Ghana Health Service (GHS), said the country is not overwhelmed despite recent surge in COVID-19 cases.
Speaking in an interview with Kojo Mensah on The Asaase Breakfast Show, Dr Kuma-Aboagye said the surge could largely be attributed to poor adherence to coronavirus protocols during the Christmas and New Year festivities.
“We always anticipate at some point that we need to be cautious. All our interventions were able to contain it [during the elections]. We didn’t see any spike in those period,” he recalled.
Blame Christmas celebration
“Christmas and New Year celebration is another matter, and we felt that compliance was poor with too many parties, too many exposures and no wearing of mask was observed and that is actually leading to what we are having now,” Dr Kuma-Aboagye added.
He is calling on the public to heed strictly to all safety measures to help reduce the spread of the virus, adding the media plays a crucial role in driving the message down to the public.
For his part, Dr Owusu Sekyere of the Ghana Medical Association (GMA), who also spoke on the show called for stiff sanctions against those who are found culpable of flouting COVID-19 protocols irrespective of their status.
Dr Sekyere said: “What we think is that the laws that have been enacted should be enforced, if people don’t wear face mask in public and they have to pay a fine, so be it go for it.
“But you see it becomes very difficult on our part when you see politicians, you see big rallies and others going virtually uncondemn and when the ordinary person is going without mask you say they should arrest them.”
Case update
Ghana’s active case count of the COVID-19 pandemic has shot up marginally to 1,261, according to latest figures from the Ghana Health Service.
The total number of confirmed cases stands at 56, 230 after the Ghana Health Service recorded an additional 193 new cases from the laboratories as at 7 January 2021. So far, 54, 631 persons have recovered and have been discharged. The death toll stands at 338.
Fred Dzakpata
* Asaase Radio 99.5 – tune in or log on to broadcasts online.
#asaaseradio#TVOL
