Don’t hide relatives exhibiting symptoms of coronavirus - Ghanaians cautioned

The citizenry has been advised not to hide relatives who exhibit symptoms of COVID-19, to strengthen the country’s efforts in response to the novel Coronavirus.

Madam Rahinatu Yakubu, Northern Regional Health Promoter at the Ghana Health Service, who gave the advice, said, “If you hide your relatives, who exhibit symptoms of COVID-19, they will infect others if they are positive for the disease and this is not good for the fight against the disease.”

Madam Yakubu emphasized the need for the citizenry to contact the COVID-19 Risk Communication Team in each region to check on their relatives exhibiting the symptoms to ensure that they were properly isolated to avoid infecting others.

She said this at a presentation on the COVID-19 pandemic at a trainer of trainers’ workshop for Information Officers and Cinema Commentators drawn from 16 Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies in the Northern Region.

The workshop, held in Tamale at the weekend, was organized by the Information Services Department to equip the Information Officers and Cinema Commentators with adequate knowledge on the disease to enable them to better educate the citizenry on how to halt its spread in the country.

The country recorded her first two cases of the disease on March 12, and so far, 214 confirmed positive cases have been recorded in the country out of which five persons have died while three others have fully recovered.

Madam Yakubu expressed the need for participants to give accurate information to the citizenry to help demystify their misconceptions about the disease so that that they adhere to all the precautionary measures to help halt the spread of the disease in the country.

She also urged them to be sensitive in communicating messages on the disease to the people to enable them to better relate to ensuring behavioural change in communities.

Alhaji Alhassan Issahaku, Northern Regional Coordinating Director, who spoke about the illiteracy levels amongst the population, expressed the hope that the training would help participants to come out with well-crafted messages to impart relevant information on the disease.

Mr Ahmed Hussein, Northern Regional Information Officer, urged participants to be diligent in their public education activities to avoid creating panic among the people.