A public health nurse, Cindy Ofori Appiah, is urging authorities in the health and education sector to undertake unannounced visits to the various schools, especially the public ones, to ascertain how they are observing the safety protocols for the coronavirus.
A social media video sighted by GhanaWeb, shows a schoolboy dip his hand in a bowl full of dirty water from other people’s washing of hands, and then shake off his hands while running towards his classroom.
This was after he got to the Veronica Bucket and noticed there was no water in it.
Speaking on Accra FM’s Ghana Yensom and monitored by GhanaWeb, Cindy Appiah said that such practices are prevalent in most public schools as well as public places, and the only reason the contents of that video is coming to many people as a shock is because all the other ones have not been captured on video.
“When coronavirus came to this country, my mind took me back to the days of the late former president, John Evans Atta Mills. This was a man who could just get up, without notice and pay visits to government institutions to check progress on their work. This made everybody alert. I will plead that this same spirit is employed by the GES, the Ministry of Education, Ghana Health Service, and even the District Assemblies. They should visit these schools unannounced to check on their adherence to the protocols. That is the only way we can instill that discipline in the school to keep them on their toes,” she said.
She was further worried that what seemed like a good intention from the schoolboy to adhere to the protocol, turned out wrong because there was no water for him to use.
“If you look at what the child did, he was adhering to the protocol but what he did gives great cause for worry. My question is, Who videod it? And after that, what did the person do for the child? This is happening across a lot of schools and when they notice water in the buckets are finished, they don’t know who to go and speak to
She there wants teachers to also make it a duty to occasionally check on these buckets to ensure that there is always water in them.
“Even if it is after every two hours, teachers should go round to check if there is water in the buckets or not and make sure that they are filled because for most of these children, when the water finishes, they may not know the right person to complain to,” she said.
Meanwhile, the Daily Graphic reports that the Public Health Emergency Management Committee of the Western Region has expressed worry about the surge in new COVID-19 cases in the region due to disregard for the safety protocols by members of the general public alongside water rationing in various parts of the region.
It said that most public places visited in the regional capital, including bus terminals, markets, offices, and shops had no water in hand hygiene equipment positioned at various entrances for visitors.
Cindy Ofori Appiah is a Public Health Nurse