Relaxing nose mask directive was a rushed decision - Health Expert

Decision to reserve COVID-19 mask mandate was premature – Prof Awandare

New variant of COVID-19 is

Read full articlemore transmissible than previous omicron variants – Prof Awandare

Ghana's COVID-19 active cases increase to 1,064

Director of West African Centre for Cell Biology of Infectious Pathogens (WACCBIP), University of Ghana, Prof Gordon Awandare, has said that the decision by the government to lift Ghana's COVID-19 mask mandate was wrong.

In a 3news interview monitored by GhanaWeb, Prof Awandare, said that the mask mandate should have remained at least for indoor events.

“I think it was pre-mature to lift the mask mandate completely. I think it should have remained in place for indoor events… so, I think that as a minimum we should restore the mandate for indoor events like churches, meetings (and) conferences, I think we need to restore the mandate for those indoor events. If you are outdoor, the risk is much lower but for indoors I think that we probably,” he said.

The director warned of an astronomic increase in the number of COVID-19 cases in the country if care is not taken.

According to him, COVID-19 cases will increase if the necessary precautions are not taken because there is a new variant in Ghana which is more infectious.

Prof Awandare added that no one is immune to this variant of COVID-19.

“I think it can always get worse because we are probably seeing the beginning of a new wave, hopefully, a mini-wave but if we don’t take the precautions, it can quickly escalate. What is going on is that we have some new sub-variants (of the omicron variant) which have entered the country. These (the new variants) are more transmissible than the previous omicron variants that we had,” he said.

He added that Ghanaians must start taking the necessary precautions against the virus, saying, “so, it means that people must go back to wearing the mask, especially at indoor events."

He urged Ghanaians who have not taken the COVID-19 vaccines to do so as soon as possible because it will help prevent them from getting seriously sick in the event that they get infected by the virus.

Meanwhile, Ghana's active COVID-19 cases have, for the first time since a revision to the COVID-19 prevention measures, seen an increase in active cases.

Figures from the Ghana Health Service' COVID-19 portal indicate that as of June 13, 2022, the country had 1,064 active cases and had administered a total of 16,396,820 vaccine doses.

Per the Ghana Health Service portal, 11 regions have active cases, namely; the Volta, Oti, Greater Accra, Eastern, Central, Ashanti, Bono East, Western, Brong Ahafo, Upper West and Upper East regions.

The regions without active cases of the illness are North East, Northern, Western North, Ahafo and Savannah.

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