Ghanaian Times: Coronavirus: there should be no room for complacency

For some strange reasons, many Ghanaians are behaving as though the coronavirus pandemic has vanished.

A vast majority of Ghanaians continue to defy the COVID-19 protocols, including wearing nose masks, social distancing and washing of hands frequently under running water.

It is commonplace today to see a mass gathering of people of all ages at political campaigns, market places, and lorry parks among other such public places without them practising social distancing.

This deliberate act by many citizens poses danger to themselves and the population at large because COVID-19 is still with us.

As we all well know, the coronavirus is still contagious and until a vaccine is found, the disease is going to be with us for some time, which is why we find it extremely worrying that we are lowering our guards when we should not.

Evidence abounds that there is a second wave of infections across Europe and the Americas, which should tell us that we are not out of the woods yet.

The Ghanaian Times finds it amazing that in spite of the abundant evidence that the disease is still killing thousands of people and infecting millions across the globe, we in this part of the world are taking it lightly.

As we already know, there is no vaccine yet to prevent the spread of the disease and what it means is that we all remain vulnerable.

Therefore, we must continue to strictly adhere to COVID-19 safety protocols.

Indeed, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, in his televised address, warned Ghanaians against any careless attitude towards the COVID-19 safety protocols since the virus is still a mystery.

He said despite the successful management of the disease in the country, the nature of the virus was largely unknown as a result, the continuous observance of the protocols remained the surest way of defeating the pandemic.

We wish to re-echo the sentiment expressed by the President and to emphasize that we all must practise good hygiene in addition to wearing nose masks to prevent the spread of the disease.

We urge all stakeholders and the public at large to take the issue seriously for without that, we stand to suffer a second spike of the disease.

We hope that Ghanaians would heed our advice and make sure we do not exhibit careless attitude towards the disease, as well as stop the mass gatherings as they are the points where the disease can spread very fast.

We should be commending ourselves for how far we have come and consolidate the gain so far made and not create the conditions for the disease to spread again so that together we can win the war against COVID-19.

COVID-19: there should be no room for complacency