Coronavirus: Fear and panic continue to grip market women at Aiyinasi

Correspondence from Western Region:

Fear and panic continue to grip market women at Aiyinasi in the Ellembelle District of Ghana's Western Region in the wake of the deadly Coronavirus pandemic.

President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo directed all MMDCEs in the country to put measures in place to sensitize people at the various market places about the virus.

But a visit to the Aiyinasi market by GhanaWeb's Western Regional Correspondent confirmed that nothing has been done when it comes to sensitisation.

Some market women in the area who spoke to GhanaWeb's Western Regional Correspondent Daniel Kaku on condition of anonymity said the government has failed to educate them about the virus.

They added that the government has not provided them with any preventive items to protect themselves from the virus hence their fear.

They, therefore said the only person who could protect them from contracting the virus was God.

They said they were only looking up to God for protection.

They emphasized that the only protector of this world is God.

"We don't have anything to protect ourselves, we are only looking up to God for protection", they said.

"They only person who can protect us is God because is our only Protector because the preventive items are not 100 per cent", they added.

They continued to lament that since the outbreak in the country, people were not coming out to patronising their produce and according to them, this has affected their businesses.

"You see that nowadays people don't come out to buy our food stuff and other items, everybody is afraid to come out because they fear they will get the virus and you see again that there's no Veronica basket here that we can use to wash our hands, only God can protect us, we don't know where this virus comes from, we are not safe at all", they worried.

They are by this, appealing to God to save them, their children, husbands and Ghana as a whole.



"We are appealing to God to save our children, our husbands and Ghana as a whole from this virus".

"God should have mercy on us, we are afraid that's why we are asking God to have mercy on us because we don't have anything to protect ourselves", they called on God.

Aiyinasi market is the biggest market in Ellembelle District and one of the biggest markets in Western Region.

The visit to the market by our Correspondent revealed in a video that the market women especially the fish sellers are not safe because our Correspondent did not see any of the recommended preventive items around them.

Some residents in the area are pleading with the government to as a matter of urgency, fumigate the market and other markets in the District before it is too late.



The COVID-19 virus is a new virus linked to the same family of viruses as Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) and some types of the common cold.

The disease which is caused by the novel coronavirus was first identified in Wuhan, China, and has been named coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).

"The ‘CO’ stands for the corona, ‘VI’ for the virus and ‘D’ for the disease.

Formerly, this disease was referred to as ‘2019 novel coronavirus’ or ‘2019-nCoV."

Ghana has so far recorded 52 confirmed cases as of Tuesday, March 24, 2020 and two people have passed on.