Tamale, April 17, GNA – The Catholic Relief Services (CRS), an international NGO, has undertaken a sensitization exercise at major markets and public places within the Tamale and Sagnarigu Assemblies to create awareness amongst residents on the COVID-19 pandemic to help halt its spread.
The beneficiary areas included the Central Market, Aboabo Market, Lameshegu Market, Bus Terminals, Sagnarigu Taxi Rank and common market, and Gumani last stop.
These areas are patronised by more than 48 rural and urban communities in the Tamale Metropolis and the Sagnarigu Municipality of the Northern Region.
The people were educated on the facts about the disease, its mode of transmission and precautionary measures to contain it.
The sensitization exercise formed part of the Urban Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) project, being funded from CRS private funds to ensure that residents of Tamale have access to clean, affordable, and safe private sanitation facilities to help stop open defecation in the area.
Mr Victor Plance, Senior Project Officer, WASH, at CRS Tamale Office, who briefed GNA in Tamale after the week-long sensitization exercise, said it was to ensure that people avoided the disease to halt its spread.
The country confirmed two cases of COVID-19 on March 12, and by April 15, the number of confirmed cases had risen to 641 with eight deaths.
Mr Plance said “CRS together with implementing partners of the Urban WASH project undertook the sensitization exercise to create awareness on the disease and educate the public on various precautionary measures, such as social distancing, hand washing with soap under running water and use of hand sanitizers to avoid getting infected and to halt the spread of the disease.”
He advised residents, who experienced fever, dry cough and difficulty in breathing to call the Ghana Health Service’s helpline for proper medical care.
Mr Plance touched on other activities being undertaken by the CRS on the COVID-19 pandemic saying the CRS was also carrying out radio programmes to sensitize members of the public on the disease and to influence behavioural change amongst the people to help halt the spread of the disease.
He added that CRS would continue to engage implementing partners to support in addressing some gaps in the fight against COVID-19 in Tamale and Sagnarigu.
Mr Plance urged the traders and buyers to educate others about the disease since they interacted with a lot of people daily and advised them to get nose masks and hand gloves and use them regularly as well as patronize hand washing facilities at vantage points in Tamale.
Mr Seidu Mohammed Saani, Environmental Health Officer at the Tamale Metropolitan Assembly entreated the traders and buyers to observe all the precautionary measures, especially social distancing in the markets to prevent the spread of the disease.
Mr Seidu Alhassan, a porter at the Aboabo Market, said the sensitization helped him to better understand the disease, its transmission and prevention, saying he would observe the precautionary measures to avoid it.
GNA