Sunyani, May 12, GNA – The Mask Ambassadors in collaboration with the Sunyani Municipal Assembly at the weekend distributed 1,000 nose masks to high risk population in the Sunyani Municipality to stem the spread of the Corona Virus Disease (COVID-19).
Mask Ambassadors is a local group comprising media practitioners and health workers that advocates wearing of nose masks to protect the people from contracting the COVID-19.
Beneficiaries were mostly commercial drivers, motor riders, truck and wheel barrow pushers, head porters and the aged.
The exercise, started around 0900 hours and lasted for about five hours as the Ambassadors, together with the Sunyani Municipal COVID-19 taskforce paraded the principal streets of the Bono Regional Capital and distributed the nose masks randomly.
In an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA), Madam Justina Owusu-Banahene, the Sunyani Municipal Chief Executive underscored the importance for the populace to wear the masks and adhere to the social and physical distancing protocols as well.
She said hand washing under running water and use of hand sanitizers were still relevant in the fight against the spread of the disease, and advised the public to observe personal hygiene.
While commending the taskforce for their commitment in stemming the spread of the COVID-19 in the Municipality, Mad. Owusu-Banahene praised the Mask Ambassadors for the initiative and hoped they would intensify public education for the people to understand the need to wear the nose masks.
In a related development, the Bono Regional Directorate of the Ghana Health Service has taken 630 specimen to the Kumasi Centre for Collaborative Research (KCCR), since the region recorded a confirmed COVID-19 case last week.
Dr. John Ekow Otoo, the Deputy Director, Public Health at the Directorate told the Ghana News Agency (GNA) in an interview on Monday that 148 contacts had been traced so far.
The region’s confirmed case of the COVID-19 involved 27-year old Togolese who entered the country through an unapproved route at Sampa, a town along the Ghana-Cote d’Ivoire border in the Jaman North District.
He and nine others were arrested by the Ghana Immigration Service and the GNA learnt they had since been repatriated.
Dr. Otoo said most of the suspects whose samples had been taken were in self-quarantine, while the Jaman North District Assembly had arranged a quarantine centre for some of them.
He said the Directorate in collaboration with Bono Regional Coordinating Council had heightened surveillance and monitoring and called on the public to also do their best by complying with all directives to help stem the spread of the disease.
GNA