Accra May 29, GNA — The Vice Chancellor of the University of Health and Allied Sciences has asked Ghanaians not to jubilate yet about the supposed success in the fight against the Covid-19 pandemic.
Professor John Gyapong indicated that Ghana might not be “out of the woods yet and we have to rather stick to the protocols in fighting the pandemic and improve upon our health facilities in preparedness for any further upsurge in covid cases.”
The Vice Chancellor made this call during a public lecture organized by the Central University at the Christ Temple, Accra, as part of the University’s efforts to bring to the fore vital issues affecting Ghana and profess solutions to them.
Prof. Gyapong observed that it was not clear scientifically how Africa was able to survive the pandemic even though many predicted doom for the continent with Ghana’s strategy at fighting the pandemic highly commended by world leaders.
Yet, he informed that each variant of the virus came with its own challenges and that called for a certain alertness in order not to be taken by surprise.
The Professor hinted that most cases in Ghana were imported and, even though Ghana had one of the best strategies in curbing the importation of the virus, it had been proven that, “Whenever other countries sneeze, Ghana catches cold, therefore the need to be careful with the new wave of Covid-19 cases in some parts of the world.
Prof. Gyapong was particularly worried over how Ghana lost her guard at some points in time especially during the build up to the 2020 General Elections which saw people coming up in their masses to register for the elections, take part in political campaigns and to cast their votes, a situation which made the cases surge so high.
The academic was also worried due to the hesitancy of most Ghanaians to actually go for vaccinations which, according to him, did not give good indication of Ghana’s ability to fight the pandemic should another wave hit the country.
This, the Professor said, was because, the new variants the world were recording, were not killing people in their masses the way the first wave did because a high percentage of the people in the advanced countries had been fully vaccinated.
Therefore, “If those with high vaccination coverage are getting minimal hospitality and death records, what will happen to us with low vaccination coverage,” Prof. Gyapong wondered.
In that regard, Prof. Gyapong indicated that, “Ghana can be susceptible to a new variant if things go the way they were going, observing that if we vaccinate, we protect ourselves and those around us since those vaccinated prevented the spread of the virus in the population.”
The Vice Chancellor asked the Government to train and fully engage social scientists in the fight against Covid-19 since they are better placed with the requisite skill to promote the education and spread of information about the pandemic. “Most of the challenges we’ve had about covid is about misinformation and disinformation.”
He therefore asked that, “we learn how to live with Covid-19 and be vigilant, insisting that we enhance our surveillance, laboratory network, effective analysis of data, and getting the value chain working properly as far as the communication system is concerned, and I believe that if we project that we would get out of the woods.”
Prof. Gyapong also asked that Ghana built a resilient health system and promote her pandemic preparedness.
“Build the informal sector as far as our economies are concerned; if we are to help our small-scale informal economies, they would be able to impact the country much more than what they are doing currently. We also have to embark on a targeted and intensified vaccination to increase vaccination coverage,” he said.
The lecture, which was second in the series of lectures being organized by the Central University, was on the theme, “Covid-19: Is Ghana out of the woods?”
The CU is looking forward to hosting Professor Philip Ebow Bondzi-Simpson, Former Rector, GIMPA on the topic, “New Paradigm for Public Sector Compensation—A restatement,” as well as other lectures.
GNA