ISD, REG. HEALTH DIRECTORATE SCHOOL INFO. OFFICERS ON COVID-19 31st March, 2020

The Upper East Regional Health Promotion Officer, Rexford King James Adjei has underscored the need for officers of the Information Services Department [ISD] to be armed with the appropriate information on the corona virus as they continue with their public awareness and education efforts in the national fight against further spread of the pandemic.

 

A Section of the Officers sitting far apart

Mr. Adjei who addressed information officers from all the 15 municipal and district assemblies from across the Upper East Region as well as some other staff from the regional directorate of the ISD in Bolgatanga, said the need for massive and continuous public education on the virus was very critical in that, the country’s health delivery system would be overwhelmed with an astronomical rise in the cases.

The Health Promotion Officer noted that the constant churning out of accurate information by the ISD and other stakeholders to the public about the virus and following the simple basic preventive guidelines as well as anti-spread protocols, will be the country’s best bet in stemming the corona virus. He said people, in their own interest and for the safety of their families and associates, must necessarily adhere to regular hand-washing with soap under running water, cover their noses and mouths with disposable tissue when coughing or sneezing, avoid hand-shakes, avoid touching door handles and surfaces among others.

He also prescribed the wearing of a nose cum mouth mask when travelling in public transport which should be safely discarded after a single use. The officer however, cautioned the public against dressing up in almost full-theatre apparel as such appearances in public may stoke fear and unnecessary panic amongst the populace regarding the virus, which is also known as COVID-19.  

  

Meanwhile Upper East Regional Information Officer [RIO] Mr. Bennin Douri Issifu in his welcome address earlier, reminded his officers that the ISD was a legally mandated institution of state charged with the responsibility of communicating government policies, activities, programmes and interventions such as the various responses being rolled out in fighting the COVID-19 pandemic. He noted that with a history of undertaking similar tasks with recorded successes in the past, the ISD could not afford to fail on this count and thus charged the information officers, to disseminate relevant and accurate information on timely basis to all people in the communities to help save lives.

Mr. Bennin, UE-RIO speaking to his officers

Mr. Bennin stated, “It is time for us to show our patriotism. We have been called to duty as citizens of Ghana and this is not the time to leave the work for only one institution of state. We are all one big army standing up to fight this huge enemy called the Corona Virus”.

The RIO went on and took his officers through a powerpoint presentation on the fine details of the messages they were to disseminate to the public in such a way that there would be coherence and not disjointed and paralleled content about the same pandemic.

Upper East Regional Coordinating Director Alhaji Mahamadu Assibi Azonko who sat in for the regional minister, told the information officers that effective communication was an essential mix in the COVID-19 fight and entreated them to do the kind of communication that would engender hope in the public other than one that would rather create panic. He observed that, the in-country exodus of Ghanaians from one region to another and the unfortunate discrimination of some persons from abroad into the communities, all stem from misunderstanding of message sent out to the public.

Alhaji Azonko said the basic issue is for the ordinary person and the public as a whole, to understand the unfortunate health problem that was at hand and how their individual actions and alertness would very helpful in the aggregate of efforts to weed out the COVID-19 pandemic from Ghana, else no one can be said to be totally safe.

 

Alh. Assibi Azonko, RCD - UERCC

He also cautioned the public against publishing or sharing false information on social media about the corona virus, as some people with less exposure to the credible literature about the virus could be pushed to take very injurious actions that will not only affect them, but the country as a whole. 

For the records, the Upper East Region has not yet recorded any COVID-19 case though about a fought night ago, there was a rumoured case in the Nakolo area in the Kassena-Nankana West District which turned to be a pneumonia case and yet another suspected two cases in the Bongo District around 25^th-26^th March, which were contained and investigated and which also tested negative.

However, with about 10 cases of the virus confirmed in near-by Tamale in the Northern Region which is just about two hours’ drive from Bolgatanga,  capital of the Upper East Region  and yet, another confirmed case in the Upper West Region, people in Upper East generally fear anything could happen if immediate and adequate measures were not instituted at the region’s entry points.