<<Print>>

Director of Health Promotion at the Ghana Health Service, Dr Dacosta Aboagye says that the police have been instructed to punish people who fail to wear facemask as indicated by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo in his address on the Covid-19.

According to him, the President's directive will be carried out to the letter to ensure that the wearing of facemask is adhered to so as to avoid a second lockdown in the country.

Speaking on Okay FM’s Ade Akye Abia Morning Show, Dr Dacosta Aboagye revealed that some of the private labs that are supposed to feed the Ghana Health Sevrice system with information on Covid-19 cases as arranged have been failing to deliver, causing the recent increase of the Covid-19 cases.

He stressed that some of the private labs failed to notify the Ghana Health Service on time about the Covid-19 cases they detected, making it impossible for the government to do the contact tracing to fish out those with the Covid-19.

“We had an arrangement with them that when they get positive cases, they should record it on Ghana Health Service system and notify us so that we can do contact tracing if the need be but some of the private labs are not following the arrangement we had with them.

“Some of the private labs too, after detecting positive cases in their labs, they will notify the Ghana Health Service 4 days later and these people would be walking around with the virus and all these have contributed to the increase number of the Covid-19 cases. The President has made it clear that anyone who does not comply with the arrangement, their facilities will be closed down”, he cautioned.

He further indicated that some institutions like night clubs and beaches have been flouting the safety protocols and so the President has instructed that the police to investigate in order to flush out those institutions and punish them for flouting the safety protocols.

The health expert revealed that another fundamental reason for the upsurge in COVID-19 cases is the non-compliance of Ghanaians with the wearing of facemask and washing of hands as well as observing social distancing protocols.