Coronavirus: Thermometer guns proves nothing; it's pure 'myth' - Nana Ofori Owusu

Nana Ofori Owusu says the use of a thermometer gun to determine COVID-19 infections is a myth.

According to him, the guns do not have the ability to show who has the disease or not, particularly in the case of asymptomatic patients.

He made this statement during a panel discussion on Peace FM's 'Kokrokoo' on Monday, June 15, 2020, while responding to President Nana Akufo-Addo's ease of restrictions on educational institutions in the country.

The President has directed schools to reopen for final year students and in his 11th update on COVID-19 on Sunday, June 14, noted that ''a total of six hundred thousand (600,000) face masks has been distributed to the tertiary institutions. This is to enable every student, teaching and non-teaching staff to have three (3) reusable face masks. In addition to this, one thousand seven hundred (1,700) Veronica buckets, two hundred thousand (200,000) litres of hand sanitisers, three thousand, four hundred (3,400) litres of liquid soap, and nine hundred (900) thermometer guns have been distributed, with the transportation and delivery of these items being overseen by the special logistics team of the Government Committee, chaired by the sagacious, experienced politician, the Senior Minister, Hon. Yaw Osafo Maafo, that is supervising the re-opening of the schools''.

The distribution of the items is aimed at safeguarding the students and the school authorities and staff against transmissions of COVID-19.

This notwithstanding, Nana Ofori Owusu, who is aspiring to be the National Chairman of the Progressive People's Party (PPP) is of a strong view that the President may rather be exposing the students to the disease and therefore endangering their lives.

He also sought to defuse the reliability of thermometer guns used to test people's temperature to ascertain their health status with regard to COVID-19.

Nana Ofori Owusu implored the President and all Ghanaians not to repose their confidence in the thermometer guns stating emphatically the ''thermometer guns do not prove anything. It cannot show you are infected or not.

"If you're asymptomatic, there is no thermometer gun that can prove that you have contracted the disease or not. It's not the case. This is part of the myth of the issue," he added.