Surge in COVID-19 cases: Health expect calls for stricter restrictions

Samuel Arthur, a community health advocate is pushing for the tightening of COVID-19 restrictions to help contain the spread of the viral disease in the country.

His call is coming on the back of fears the country may witness a third wave following recent increase in active cases.

Speaking on Think Tank with Karen Dodoo Antwi on Asaase Radio, Arthur said: “Only a couple of weeks ago, I know Accra Hearts of Oak and Kumasi Asante Kotoko had a match… apparently this is the time when this new variant had showed up, now if the variant is that deadly and from what we are hearing the variant is such that the kind of vaccines we are receiving will not be able to deal adequately with it.

“Then I find it a bit more disturbing why we don’t want to tighten the restrictions and ensure that these protocols actually are adhered to.”

He added, “If the stadiums are opened, funerals are happening, people are congregating, people are meeting and unfortunately most people are not adhering to the protocols and we want to place our fortunes on luck and luck will not work in this case.”

The community health advocate said the continuous flouting of the COVID-19 protocols at various social gatherings across the country calls for a rethink of the approach in tackling the viral disease.

Case Count

Three more persons have succumbed to the Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) increasing the death toll to 815, the Ghana Health Service (GHS) has disclosed.

The death toll as of Wednesday, July 14, 2021 was 812.

An update from GHS said, Ghana as at Thursday, July 15, 2021, had recorded 343 new cases, while the cumulative number of active cases was 3,124.

According to the GHS, the country has recorded a total of 99,160 cases of the virus since it confirmed its first two cases in March last year.

The number of persons who have recovered/discharged is 95, 221 with 26 persons in severe condition and 15 others in critical condition.

The Greater Accra Region still leads with the highest number of active cases with 1,703 infections, followed by the Ashanti Region 974 infections, then the International travelers (KIA) with 124 infections, and Bono Region with 68 infections. Meanwhile, the Upper West Region has recorded zero active cases.

Warning

“I am surprised that the intensive public education in the observance of the protocols is not really being hammered and it beats my imagination. We saw what happened in December, January, February and we don’t want that to happen again so please, I call on the authorities to go down, drill down and continue educating people and enforce the protocols, the social distancing regimes and the funerals and weddings that goes on unabated. And at the individual levels, please Ghanaians, let’s take our destiny into our own hands and do what is right, mask up, wash your hands and maintain the necessary social distance,” – Chairman of the Ghana Medical Association(GMA) for Accra, Dr Ernest Yorke, called on the medical fraternity to come with clean hands and inform the general public about the true situation on Covid-19 rather than churning out conflicting information on the virus in the media space.

He said the medical fraternity needs to instill confidence in the public by relaying news about the true state and nature of the deadly pandemic and even among the health and frontline workers themselves, they need to believe what the health experts tell them about the Covid -19 virus.