Tarkwa-Nsuaem Municipal Assembly members urged to fight coronavirus stigmatization

The Tarkwa-Nsuaem Municipal Assembly has held its first ordinary meeting of the first session with a call on Assembly members to serve as agents of change against COVID-19 stigmatization.

Benjamin Kessie, the Municipal Chief Executive (MCE) for Tarkwa-Nsuaem, in his sessional address at Awhitieso, said the major challenge confronting the fight against the novel Coronavirus was the continuous stigmatization of persons who contracted the virus.

This, he said, was preventing citizens from seeking voluntary testing for the virus.

"Landlords are evicting their tenants because they contracted the virus. People are not welcomed by society and their own families even after they have tested negative to the virus," he said.

Mr Kessie entreated the Assembly members to frequently educate the citizenry in their respective electoral areas to help reverse the trend.

Though the Municipality was declared an epicentre of COVID-19 in the Western Region, the Assembly was doing its best to curb the spread of the disease from the Municipality, he indicated.

He said to lead the change towards the prevention of the disease, the Assembly has set up a separate COVID-19 account and had since deposited GH¢300,000.00.

Touching on education, the MCE said the Education Directorate usually organized the Municipal mock examination with the sponsorship of the Assembly at the beginning of every year for Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) candidates.

However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic the mock examination was postponed and was currently being held following the re-opening of schools for final year BECE candidates, he added.

On the school feeding programme, he announced that 27 schools in the Municipality had benefited from the programme, adding that 10,050 pupils were benefitting from the initiative against a target of 12, 842 for 2019.

He said a total of 5,791 persons had registered to join the National Health Insurance Scheme as at the end of April this year.

Out of the figure, 2,812 are males and 2,979 females.

The data shows that about 60 per cent of the inhabitants in the municipality were covered under the Health Insurance Scheme, the MCE said.

Mr Kessie stated that to ease the traffic situation in Tarkwa, Alimens-Cyanide and Brenuakyim-Bogrekrom link roads were constructed.

"Bonsa-Benso and Kawerekwanano-Esuoso roads are currently under construction while approval has also been given for the dualisation of Agona Nkwanta-Tarkwa road,” he hinted

The MCE said the government through the Department of Urban Roads and in collaboration with the Member of Parliament for Tarkwa-Nsuaem constituency, has awarded the contract to Justmoh Construction Limited for the rehabilitation of the Tarkwa Senior High schools campus roads.

He said the project, which commenced in November 2019, was scheduled to be completed by November this year.

Mr Kessie assured the assembly members that an orientation and training programme would be organized for them to enhance their competence.