The Ghana Health Service (GSH) has sent out an SOS message to companies for them to revisit and intensify their decongestion plans to help break the new wave of the COVID-19 pandemic the country is currently battling.
According to the GHS, the new wave of the pandemic shows that the infection is spreading more among relatives than corporate groups.
As a result, they are cautioning businesses to trigger their decongestion plans and intensify the adherence of the protocols to ensure that there are no workplace spikes as it would be detrimental to the fight against the new wave.
Speaking at a press briefing organised by the Ministry of Information on the government’s response to the current COVID-19 surge, the Director General of the GHS Dr. Patrick Kuma-Aboagye said: “we want to promote decongestion. What we are now fighting against is for this third rise to get into our workplaces. We have learnt from experience that if this gets into our workplace, there will be an explosion.
Those that can be done virtually let’s do it; non-essential staff can stay home, for the staff we can be running shifts so that we have fewer people in the office to prevent a potential spread. This virus spread among acquaintances; if I have it, there are chances that I am going to give it to my family or friends, basically the people we meet frequently. So, we are preaching this hard to make sure that there is no workplace spread.”
Data from the GHS has shown that after the yuletide, the country is experiencing a new wave of COVID 19 and this is coming after the country began recording its first cases in March and a second wave was noted between October and November.
As at yesterday, January 25, according to Ghana Health Service’s latest update, the country had recorded 679 new COVID-19 cases. This brings the country’s active case count to 3,286. Five more deaths have also been recorded, increasing the death toll to 367. Meanwhile, some 146 clinical recoveries have also been recorded.
For the third wave, Dr. Kumah Aboagye said that 17 districts and eight regions across the country had recorded new cases. Korley Klottey and Ayawaso were recording highest numbers; Ashanti Region, 37 new cases; Eastern Region, 11 cases; Western Region, 16 cases; Upper East, 14 cases; and Northern Region, 4 cases.
He further noted that, currently, there are active cases in all 16 regions and the third wave is hospitalising patients more than the first and second. While 21 percent of the first and second wave patients were getting sick, 32 percent of persons in the third wave are getting sick. Also, over 200 cases are recorded daily.
“This virus is thriving on our very way of life, how we commune, how we worship, everything we do, that is what the virus is trying to take advantage of. What the protocols seek to do is to see how we modify our way of life so that we can also defy the strength of the virus. We need self-discipline and we need everyone to help us enforce these protocols to cause the change,” Dr. Kumah Aboagye advised.
