Apathy towards coronavirus public health protocols worrying - GHS

The Ghana Health Service (GHS) has expressed worry over the apathetic behaviour of some section of the public towards public health protocols adopted by the Country to contain the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic.

This, according to the GHS was a contributing factor to the increasing number of COVID-19 cases being recorded in the country.

Deputy Central Regional Director in charge of Public Health Dr. Kwabena Sarpong, who expressed this sentiment cautioned that this could derail efforts and gains made in the COVID-19 fight if this was not immediately checked.

Speaking in an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA), Dr Sarpong was very much concerned about the attitude of many people in the coastal communities as well as the market places who fail to observe the public health protocols as they should.

Central Region now has 192 COVID-19 confirmed cases, making it the third-highest Region in the Country, after Greater Accra and Ashanti.

“People are not observing the social distancing, they are not using nose masks and you often see a lot of people crowded in shopping centers and around our fishing communities”, he said.

Dr Sarpong mentioned that though the high number of cases being recorded could be attributed to the aggressive testing and tracing, it also showed that there were community transmissions and it must be the concern of all.

“This is against the fact that we are doing a lot of education in these communities preaching that we should all try and observe the protocols. But it just appears that people are simply not caring enough in these communities”, he added.

Dr Sarpong reiterated the resolve of the GHS to continue to engage communities and collaborate with the security agencies to ensure that people adhered to the safety protocols.

Ghana’s COVID -19 case count increased by 127 to 5,408 with 24 deaths and 514 recoveries as of Wednesday May 13.