Step up your game, public education low on coronavirus – Alex Segbefia tells government

Former Health Minister, Alex Segbefia has called on the Akufo-led government to intensify public education on the deadly coronavirus.

According to him, public education on the pandemic is generally low hence, the need for government to run television advertisements, have radio jingles in all local dialects for Ghanaians to be abreast with information regarding the pandemic and its spread.

“For me, the most important aspect which I think the government has been slow to deal with is public education. Because when we talk about the need for people to know what to do after they’ve been in contact or what they’re supposed to be doing generally, you’ll have a situation where if you haven’t yet put into the public domain jingles and adverts in our local dialects, you have missed possibly 60% of the population,” he made known on Citi Tv’s ‘The Big Issue’ program on Saturday, March 14, 2020.

On Thursday, March 12, 2020, Ghana confirmed its first two cases of coronavirus after the infected persons arrived in the country from Norway and Turkey.

The patients are currently being handled in one of the existing treatment centers but are said to be stable.

In a televised announcement by the President of the Republic, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, he directed finance minister, Ken Ofori-Atta to make available the cedi equivalent of $100 million to enhance Ghana’s coronavirus preparedness and response plan.

This amount, according to the president “is to fund expansion of infrastructure, purchase of materials and equipment, and public education.”

He explained that with the declaration by the World Health Organisation (WHO) of the Coronavirus disease as “a pandemic”, it is important that Ghana steps up her preparedness to ensure that, beyond the initial measures that have been put in place, a ‘whole of Ghana’ approach is adopted in preparation for a possible hit within the country’s borders.