Mr. Pontius Pilate Baba Apaabey, Upper East Regional Director of the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE) on Friday appealed to people not to touch their face especially the eye, nose, and mouth with unwashed hands.
“The Eyes, Nose, and Mouth served as gateway for the coronavirus disease to enter the body, don’t touch these body parts with contaminated hands, therefore wash your hands regularly with soap under running water thoroughly to avoid contracting COVID-19”, Mr Apaabey said in a statement to the Ghana News Agency in Accra.
Mr Apaabey who was leading NCCE’s Anti-COVID-19 Public Education Campaign in the region to expose residents to the dangers of the coronavirus pandemic called on citizens to observe all the preventive protocols.
The NCCE Anti-COVID-19 Public Education Campaign seeks to focus on, symptoms of the disease, mode of transmission and the need to observe safety protocols outlined by the World Health Organization (WHO), the Ghana Health Service (GHS), and the Executive Instrument on the Imposition Restriction Act, 2020 (Act, 1012).
The NCCE is undertaking the campaign in collaboration with the Church of Pentecost, which has provided mobile cinema vans to sensitise people within the Region.
The NCCE Regional Director also commended the Church of Pentecost for supporting the efforts of the commission stressing that, “the NCCE needs support to undertake effective campaign against the spread of COVID-19”.
He also appealed to other institutions to support the Commission with back-up operational tools including vehicles, megaphones, personal protective equipment and other logistics to enable them work effectively.
Mr Apaabey said the Commission with its partners had launched a four- week campaign across all the 15 districts in the region mainly at community lorry stations, market squares, radio stations and information centres.
He said as civic educators, “we are engaging the community in their local languages which they understand best, to ensure that we all appreciate the danger at stake.
“People must understand why to avoid close contact with anyone coughing or sneezing, avoid physical contact during greetings, avoid touching your face especially eyes, nose, and mouth with unwashed hands and the use alcohol-based sanitizer are basic necessities to defeat COVID-19”.
Mr Apaabey urged all to respect the Imposition Restriction Act, 2020 (1012) by the state which affects all gatherings including conferences, workshops, funerals, festivals, political rallies, and sporting events, the others include religious activities in churches, mosques, shrines and at crusades, conventions, pilgrimages and other religious gatherings.
He said the Act also enjoins public and private commercial transport services to ensure enhanced hygienic conditions in all vehicles and terminals, by providing, among others, running water and hand washing soap, alcohol-based hand sanitizers and disinfectants.
He said the most common symptoms of COVID-19 includes: fever, tiredness, dry cough, whilst some patients may have aches and pains, nasal congestion, runny nose and sore throat or diarrhoea.
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