Use your pulpits to spread news about coronavirus – GHS to religious leaders

Dr DaCosta Aboagye, Director of Health Promotion at the Ghana Health Service (GHS) has appealed to all religious leaders to use their pulpits to spread information about the outbreak of the coronavirus in Ghana.

Ghana confirmed her first two cases on Thursday, 12 March 2020 at the University of Ghana’S Noguchi Memorial Institute of Medical Research.

The disease was imported by two people who had returned from Norway and Turkey.

Health Minister Dr Kweku Agyemang-Manu, who broke the news at an emergency press conference Thursday night, said the two patients have been quarantined and are stable.

As of Thursday, 12 March 2020, 126, 380 coronavirus cases had been recorded across the globe, according to worldometer with 4, 635 deaths.

The disease first broke out in Wuhan, China but has spread through over 100 countries worldwide.

Ghana's neighbours; Togo, Ivory Coast, Burkina Faso and Nigeria have all recorded cases, too.

Dr DaCosta Aboagye, in a statement, said: “In these hard times, we all have a role to play. The media, the religious leaders, the traditional leaders, civil societies, the health professionals and the general public, so as government institutions in Ghana should adopt the ‘health-in-all’ approach to help promote preventive measures against COVID-19.

“We all have a role to play. My role is to help circulate Health Safety measures in different dialects to prevent novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) in Ghana. You can also share these audios to as many people as possible, to play your role to combat COVID-19.”