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The general public is being advised not to see the country’s race to beat the deadly coronavirus as a sprint, but rather, a marathon which Ghana is going to be in it for a long period.
A former deputy health
minister, Dr. Victor Bampoe said it is about time Ghanaians are sensitized that
it would take some time for things to return to normal.
“Let’s
have it at the back of our mind, that, this is a marathon and not a sprint, so
it is going to take a long time for us to get to where we will be comfortable.”
Dr.
Bampoe who is also Coordinator of Global Financing & Technical Support of
UN-AIDS was speaking at Media General’s roundtable discussion to review the
effectiveness of government’s response to the Coronavirus pandemic on Tuesday.
May
12, 2020 is exactly 60 days after Ghana confirmed its first case on March 12,
2020. The event was dubbed ”60 DAYS OF COVID-19 IN GHANA: Assessing Ghana’s
Response to the Pandemic over 60 Days”,
As of Tuesday, Ghana
has recorded 5,127 cases of Covid-19, 22 deaths and 494 recoveries.
Following
President Akufo-Addo’s extension of the ban on public gathering including
Church service and schools, many are anticipating that the ban would be eased
after May 31, after about two and half months of coming into force.
But Dr. Bampoe wants
Ghanaians to hasty slowly on that expectation.
“Life as we knew it, is
not going to be the same, so we should disabuse our minds of any views that we
are just going to switch the lights back on and everything is back to normal,”
he cautioned.
He is therefore
charging authorities to get the public to understand the data behind decisions
taken by the president in order to “carry the people with him” for a
“collective understanding”.
Since Ghana has a large
number of asymptomatic patients, he urged government to go to the community,
identify people with the virus and carry out individual lockdown. This, he
said, should be done “quickly and very aggressive”.
“It
is a collective effort, it comes with the education, information, and the
switching of the mindset that it’s not as if, yes we are doing very well with
the testing, but that is not an end in itself, it is a means to an end”.
Dr. Yaw Bediako,
Immunologist and Research Fellow at West African Centre for Cell Biology of
Infectious Pathogens (WACCBIP), University of Ghana, had earlier asked
government to manage the expectations of the people to rather appreciate the
fact that the pandemic is going be around for a while.
“The government and
others need to begin to sensitize people that it is very likely that for a long
time, life is not going to be normal, and there is nothing we can do about
that.”
The immunologist
expects vaccine for the treatment of coronavirus to be ready minimum 12 to 18
months.
“I am not a prophet but if you look at the data as it is now, it is unlikely that things will change [within this month],” he assessed.
Other panel members
were Dr. Ama Kyerewaa Edwin, Physician Clinical Psychologist, Bioethicist, and
Palliative Care Clinician, and Dr. Samuel Kaba Akoriyea, Consultant
Neurosurgeon & Public Health Physician, Director of Institutional Care
Division, and Head of Ghana Health Service COVID-19 Case Management Team.
Source: 3news.com
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