Sunyani, April 22, GNA – The Ghana Coalition of NGOs in Health (GCNH) on Wednesday appealed to President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo for the passage of an Executive Instrument (EI) to enforce safety protocols against the spread of the Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19).
The appeal they said was to push the enforcement of social distancing and other safety protocols to contain COVID-19 in the country because research shows globally that successful countries used multi-faceted strategies – social distancing, hand hygiene, cough etiquettes, environmental cleanliness and usage of nose masks during and after locked downs to break the chain of virus disease infections.
In an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA) in Sunyani, Dr. Gabriel Benarkuu, the National Chairman of the GCNH stressed that an EI was required to provide law enforcement agencies with the legal backing and necessary logistics to ensure the populace complied with those health and safety measures to combat the COVID-19.
He said also that there was the greater need for Ghana to establish a National Control Programme on Coronavirus (NCPC) to stem the spread of the disease.
Dr. Benarkuu indicated the high societal stigmatization and discrimination of patients of the COVID-19 remains a huge setback in fighting the disease.
He said due to stigma, many COVID-19 patients had psychological problems such as depression and emphasised the need for the government to strengthen the Mental Health Authority to deal with such challenge.
He said this would enable the Authority to deal with and greatly reverse the adverse effects of various degrees of mental illness and stigmatization against communities, affected families and affected people.
The GCNH is an umbrella civil society organisation, and has contributed towards the country’s preparedness, response and containment of the COVID-19 pandemic.
According to Dr. Benarkuu, the Coalition had done this successfully through research and dissemination, advocacy, policy influencing, sharing of relief items and support to the Ghana Health Service at various levels.
GNA