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A Kumasi-based freelance journalist, Mr. Justice K. Aniah Baba has urged the Government of Ghana to reveal the identities of the patients confirmed to have the coronavirus.
According to his opinion, revealing the names of COVID-19 patients will help the Ministry of Health to trace the contact persons for quarantine hence making it easier to contain the spread of the virus.
I encourage the government not to conceal the identities of our compatriots who have been found to be COVID-19 positive. Making the identities public will help those who have associated with them for the past weeks to quickly take measures and go for diagnosis to find out whether they have also contracted the virus or not he said.
The journalist appealed to the government to borrow a leaf from other countries such as the United Kingdom, Brazil, America and Iran had not tried to conceal the identities of the persons who have tested positive for the virus.
Several prominent personalities and celebrities including Arsenal manager and 2020 Japan Olympics Chairperson have also gone public after tests.
In his view, the virus is not associated with any stigma, that people will willingly come forward with their status and help in curbing the transmission.
He said if he was to be diagnosed positive, he would not wish his identity be concealed so that he could help those he associates with to get diagnosed too.
He continued, ‘’In the same manner I encourage my colleagues who might have tested positive to agree and come out in the open as a way of eliminating infections because it seems the partial lockdown by the president is not yielding any results hence it keeps increasing from 195 to 204 cases" he said.
