A Research Fellow at the Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research, Accra (NMIMR), Dr. Joseph Kofi Humphrey Bonney has warned that if the country does not go back to strict enforcement of the Covid-19 protocols, the Covid situation will overburden the country.
MrBonney said that in his estimation, the President of Ghana has technocrats and advisors who are competent to offer cogent advice to him but from his professional view, he thinks Ghana should go back to the protocols and it should be strictly adhered to.
He told Alfred Ocansey on 3FM Sunrise Morning Show, Thursday 23 June, 2022 that although relatively, Covid-19 cases in Ghana are on the low, there is a need for the government to take steps to ensure that the situation does not get worse hence the need to go back to the protocols.
“Let’s go back to those protocols that we were holding on to so dearly when the cases were going up and we were able to bring it down by observing the protocols. We should aggressively go back to what we were doing” he insisted
He observes that some countries are going on lockdown and their cases are even rising, however people in Ghana after the relaxing of the protocols do not care about wearing of the nose mask especially children and it is part of the reason why we are recording cases among children 0 – 15 years now.
Ghana’s Covid-19 statistics currently stands at; Confirmed Cases 163,191, Deaths 1,445, Active Cases 1,026 and New Cases 120. According to the Ghana Health Service through the Director-General, Dr. Patrick Kuma-Aboagye “Currently, of the Accra cases, about 18.1% on average are among children aged between 0-15, obviously these are unvaccinated “.
The health expert with Noguchi also opines there is enough data that gives us a cause to vaccinate children because the more we broaden the coverage of the vaccination, the more we can attain herd immunity. There is enough proof that the vaccine preserves lives no matter the severity of Covid-19
Dr. Bonney cautions that Covid-19 has not gone yet for Ghanaians to be careless with the protocols and not even taking the vaccine.
“I know the Ghana Health Service (GHS) are doing well with the campaign to get people to take the vaccine but I don’t know why they are not going for the vaccine. You know Covid-19 starts with small numbers and then it goes up so we have to be more careful and don’t have to wait for it to get there before we go back to the protocols that worked for us” he concluded.
