COVID-19: GHS Express Worry As 82% Of Ghanaians Fail To Wear Face Masks

Ghana Health Service (GHS) has indicated that there was a surge in COVID-19 active cases in October as more people flouted safety protocols.

A recent survey by the service in the Greater Accra Region showed that the proportion of people who do not wear masks has increased from 18 percent to 82 percent.

Director General of the Ghana Health Service, Dr. Patrick Kuma-Aboagye speaking at meet the press session in Accra said that in 6 major markets across the Greater Accra Region, over 90 percent of people did not wear nose masks.

“The cases early increased in October because the wearing of the masks reduced in terms of all the protocols. Workplace issues were challenging, so we had to intervene to ensure that things are done. We did a survey last week and it was just a marginal increase because 82 percent of people are still not wearing the masks. Seven percent are wearing and 11 percent are not wearing the masks accurately. So that is a far cry from the 42 percent that we had a couple of months ago”, he disclosed.

According to the survey, head porters who were doing well a few months ago now have 96 percent of them not adhering to the mandatory wearing of masks directive.

However, buyers have improved their compliance as compared to the previous survey although 66 percent of them are not wearing masks.

Health authorities have also indicated that another survey is being conducted to look at workplace arrangement because most of the outbreak of the virus has come from workplaces.

Dr. Kuma-Aboagye also outlined measures taken to contain the spread of COVID-19.

“There has been a lot of interventions and currently, we have deployed about 25 vehicles to assist in contact tracing, 15 of them are in Greater Accra, the rest have been sent to the other regions to enhance our activities. We have also started an assessment of the infirmaries of school health systems in anticipation of the reopening of schools in January. We are also conducting a lab-quality assurance exercise to ensure that standards are maintained for accurate results.”

Meanwhile, recent updates from the Ghana Health Service (GHS) indicate that the country's COVID-19 case count stands at 51,184 with the active cases at 832.

The death toll also stands at 323.