Dr Senanu Kwasi Dzokoto, Deputy Volta Regional Director of Health, in charge of Public Health, has urged the citizenry to pay equal attention to other emerging health issues and respond to measures to curtail them.
He said other emerging health issues posed great danger to the lives of the people, therefore “the necessary mechanisms required to deal with them must be put in place, just as efforts were being made to fight the novel coronavirus”.
“Just to reiterate the fact, as we focus on COVID-19, let's not forget about all the other emerging issues that we face as a country,” he said.
Dr Dzokoto who was speaking at the launch of Ghana Red Cross Society (GRCS) and MasterCard Foundation support for COVID-19 containment in Ho, said the country “is facing resurgence of polio.”
He said from last year, the country had begun recording some cases of polio, and this requires a quick national response to deal with it to avoid its devastating effects on the country.
The Deputy Director said in order to effectively tackle the renaissance of the polio disease in the country “every child under five years will be immunised in eight regions - Bono, Bono East, Ahafo, Western, Western North, Upper West, Greater Accra, Eastern and Volta” between September 10 to 14, 2020.
He said the round two of the exercise would take place between October 8 to 11, 2020, aimed at having a resilient and healthy society against polio that is threatening to resurface in the country.
Dr Dzokoto urged the citizenry not to allow the COVID-19 pandemic to disrupt their daily lives, but endeavour to engage in productive activities to enhance their self-worth to improve their livelihoods.