COVID-19 Case In Bono Region Is A Wake-up Call — Berekumanhene

The Omanhene of Berekum, Daasebre Dr. Amankona Diawuo, says the only COVID-19 case recorded in the Bono region recently should serve as a wake-up call to all residents in the area to strictly adhere to the safety protocols announced by government.

The Omanhene is worried that some residents of the area, drivers and operators of tricycles, popularly called pragyia, do not seem to attach maximum seriousness to the observation of COVID-19 safety protocols.

Daasebre Dr. Amankona Diawuo, who is also a Surgeon at the Regional Hospital in Sunyani, said in an interview in his palace at Berekum in the Bono region that discussions are underway between the Police and the Berekum Traditional Council to possibly arrest and sanction any resident of the area who flouts the COVID-19 safety protocols, especially in relations to the wearing of nose-mask and the observation of the physical distancing.

This is to ensure that nobody infects other people in the town unknowingly.

Berekum is one of the largest cities in the Bono region where tricycles, popularly known as Pragyia are the major means of transport within the area.

The Bono Regional Co-ordinating Council recently banned the operations of pragyia in the region but lifted the ban after about a month and instructed that each tricycle should carry a maximum of two passengers, who together with the operator must be in nose-mask at all times but this does not seem to be working as expected.

A visit to the Central Business District of Berekum, showed that a good number of passengers and operators of Pragyia were not wearing nose-mask, a situations which the Omanhene of the area, Daasebre Dr. Amankona Diawuo finds worrying.

He told our correspondent that it is about time residents realized that the Coronavirus disease is real and can infect anyone, regardless of one’s status in society.

He said punitive measures will soon be taken against any resident in the area who is caught moving around town without wearing nose-mask.

Meanwhile, the Omanhene has presented assorted items worth over Twenty-three Ghana cedis to the Berekum Municipal and Berekum West District offices of the Ghana Health Service for distribution to the various health facilities in the two districts.

The items included a thousand pieces of nose-masks 600 bottles of hand-sanitizer, ten boxes of hand gloves, 12 pieces of infrared thermometer and ten packets of tissue paper and ten gallons, 20 veronica buckets, among others.

Daasebre Dr. Amankona Diawuo promised to make similar donations from time to time as part of his contributions toward the fight against COVID-19.