Accra, March 27, GNA – Information officers and mobile cinema operators of the Greater Accra Regional Information Services Department (ISD) have been sensitised on the novel COVID-19 to enable them to educate the citizenry on the disease.
The sensitisation workshop, organised by the Ministry of Information, was in partnership with the Global Peace Academy (GLOPA), a non-governmental organisation into water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) and environmental management.
Ms Shalomina Awuku-Bekoe, the Acting Director of the Greater Accra Regional ISD, commended the participants for their punctuality and sense of commitment to the exercise to help in the fight against the COVID-19.
She said as the infection rate rose there were misinformation in the public domain through social media and the grapevine, and as such the Department owed it a duty to provide factual and accurate information to the public to make informed decisions, hence the sensitisation.
Ms Awuku-Bekoe said: “The Department has the mandate and is duty-bound to propagate information that would calm tension and anxiety in the public because there is evidential panic in the society.”
She mentioned the symptoms of the disease as sneezing, coughing, breathing difficulty and fever and asked the participants to educate the masses on the use of alcohol-based hand sanitizers, saying that the alcohol content should not fall below 60 per cent.
“The virus causing disease can be transmitted from human to human and the virus settles on surfaces which can be carried manually. It has recently been discovered to be air-borne and members of the public should desist from touching surfaces and handles in public,” Ms Awuku-Bekoe said.
She advised the public to observe regular hand washing with soap under running water, use hand sanitizers and practice social distancing, adding that people should avoid touching their mouth, nose and eyes, which were windows of transmission.
She urged the public to comply with the measures by the Government to stem the tide of the spread as frantic research efforts were being made to find solution to the pandemic.
Ms Awuku-Bekoe said most people were using the face masks improperly, especially by uninfected persons, which could be a source of transmission of the disease.
Mr Charles Dodzi Gidisu, the Executive Director of GLOPA, called on stakeholders to partner his organisation to provide sanitary materials such as movable hand washing stations to facilitate mobile activities to prevent the spread of the COVID-19.
He said regular hand washing with soap under running water was the surest way of curbing the spread.
GNA