Ghana’s COVID-19 cases decline

The Ghana Health Service (GHS) has attributed the recent decline in COVID-19 active cases to the strict adherence to the safety protocols by the populace.

Ghana currently has a little over 5,000 Covid-19 with one thousand and eighty-nine deaths.

Speaking to Citi News, Director General of GHS Dr. Patrick Kumah- Aboagye cautioned against complacency on the part of citizens to erode the gains made thus far.

“We have moved from recording 600 cases a day to about 300 to sometimes below 300. The public got serious about social distancing and the wearing of nose masks and that has contributed significantly to this, but most importantly the fact we are vaccinating more people in the hotspot areas.”

Dr. Patrick Kumah- Aboagye further stated that the Service is currently training its personnel on the use of the 1.2 million Moderna vaccines it received from the US government on September 4, 2021.

He however said priority will be given to high-risk areas in the country.

“Every vaccine has its training requirement and because we haven’t received Moderna before, we have currently started training our personnel and the FDA has also done its proper certification. The deployment plan will focus on where the risk is high.”

WHO Support

In recent development, the World Health Organisation (WHO) is supporting Ghana technically to strengthen Risk Communication and Community Engagement (RCCE) in the Ashanti Region as part of measures to contain the third wave of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The implementation of the RCCE, aimed at providing timely and accurate information on the causes, transmission, common signs/symptoms, and prevention of the disease, is one of the key strategies by the health authorities in the fight against covid-19.

The intervention by the WHO is to scale up public education and community engagement in the Ashanti Region where the Delta variant is driving transmission at the community level.

The WHO has, therefore, deployed a health promotion specialist from its Regional Office for Africa to provide technical support to the risk communication team in the region.

Ms Aminata Grace Kobie is scheduled to spend two weeks working with the regional team to raise public awareness on the importance of observing the COVID-19 safety protocols.

Ms Kobie, accompanied by Sandra Afriyie Nartey, the Communication Officer at the WHO Ghana Office, last Monday held a meeting with the Regional Director of Health Services, Dr Emmanuel Tinkorang, and his management team to discuss pertinent issues.

She told the media after the meeting that she was in the region to support the promotion of public health measures and vaccination, using COVID-19 strategies that had worked in other countries.

Ms Kobie said the WHO was targeting the Ashanti Region because it had been identified as one of the hotspots in Ghana and with the huge population, the successful implementation of preventive measures would have significant effects on the other regions.

“After my visit, we hope that adherence level to public health measures and vaccination would have increased to make the Ashanti Region safer and prevent the next outbreak of COVID,” she said.

Ms Kobie said the discovery of the vaccines was the best thing that had happened to the fight against the disease, globally, and urged everyone to take it when the opportunity came.