Nine persons who initially tested positive for the corona virus pandemic in the Volta Region have been discharged from the treatment centre after fully recovering from the virus.
They tested negative after weeks of undergoing treatment at the Regional isolation and treatment centre of the Ho teaching Hospital.
Dr. Senanu Kwesi Djokoto, Deputy Regional Director in-charge of Public Health, who disclosed this in an interview on Egbenyawo, a news magazine programme hosted by Shelter Gakpey on Ho based Tosh 103.9 FM on Tuesday, explained six of the persons were cases recorded in the Ketu South municipality, two in Hohoe and one in Ho.
He however appealed to public not to stigmatize them but rather support them to reintegrate into the society.
Background
The Volta region after confirming its first nine cases on April 12, 2020, witnessed an exponential rise in its case count to 30 as at Friday May 1, 2020, spreading across four districts, namely, Ketu South (21), Ho (3), Hohoe (5) and Kpando(1).
However, with the recovery of the nine persons, the region’s active COVID-19 cases now stands at 21, while that of Ketu South, the region’s hotspot, decline to 16, Hohoe, 3 and Ho, 2.
Meanwhile, the Public Health Emergency Management Committee has upon technical advice commenced the mass testing of groups with relatively higher risks in order to get a firmer grasp on the transmission of the virus in emerging hot spots within the Region.
The exercise currently ongoing along the border at Aflao in the Ketu South municipality would see security personnel, drivers, okada riders among others have their samples taken for testing.
A herd of cattle can move as slow as the slowest cow but when the herd is hunted, it is the slowest and calmed ones at the back that are killed first. This is because the smart and vigilant ones would flee from the danger. This type of attack is good for the herd as a whole because the general speed and health of the whole group keeps improving by the attrition of the few calmed and carefree members.
The tendency for each member of the group to flee from danger is a natural tool for survival available to all living things which is activated anytime they sensed danger.
The scenario best describes the situation the world finds itself in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. Countries are battling with the uncertainties of the virus and putting in measures of fight or flight.
The nature of our responses determines our survival; we either stay calm or stay alert.
Currently in Ghana, majority of the over 2000 cases were revealed to be spread among members of the community. This means our community spread has outnumbered the imported cases.
This is a reason to worry. Not to only Health Workers in Ghana but Communications Persons that are involved in drafting of awareness and educational campaigns against the spread of the disease.
It is critical to note that culture affects communication and communication affects culture. This is pointer no one must ignore in communicating during this pandemic. This pointer could lead us to a more effective message that appeals or resonates with the cultural values of our audience.
The cattle is the Ghanaian society. Unlike the US, UK or Australia that has individualistic cultures with each member of the society placing values on individual goals and personal freedom, Ghana or Africa has collective societies.
The collective society values interdependence and social relationships more than individual goals. They believe in coming together and fighting a common enemy or protecting themselves from the enemy. The collective society also has an important feature when it comes to power distribution; they place so much value on those in Authority. They accept power is distributed unequally thus give so much respect to those in higher authority. The messages from their leaders are authentic and believed by all.
King Nobert Akpablie, the Writer
Since Ghana fits into the scenario, citizens can only stay on an alert for a flight or a fight if the messages and actions from their leaders suggest same. Without doubt, the slogan “spread calm, not fear” would only make the society respond to the Covid-19 fight as slow as the carefree member of the herd. With this pace we can only lace up for more infections in our communities.
There is therefore a need to understand how our people respond psychologically and behaviorally to the messages around the disease.
Do we see the sense to increase one’s vigilance and engage in self-protective health behaviors in us? NO!
In the wake of the pandemic people still go around doing business as usual in most of our communities. In fact, there are majority of us who still doubt the existence of the disease. Doubts were even heightened after the lifting of the partial lockdown in some cities. The categorization of who is at a lower risk of the virus or not, weakens our psychological protection as a collective society and breeds complacency which is risky.
This is worrying because perception plays a critical role in this fight. When you have majority of your citizens cast doubt on the presence of the disease, there is a need for government to re-strategize and review its risk communication campaign.
In this campaign, words are important and actions matter. Actions must match the words.
The current message ‘spread calm not fear’ doesn’t seem to keep Citizens vigilant. It doesn’t resonate with the “we are all in this together” spirit which is typical of a collective society.
The narration must change. Not to spread fear but tell compelling stories of those that have survived or are dead. Information about the number of cases, deaths, severity of the disease and its safety precautions must be clearly stated. Government must also avoid withholding important facts to reduce uncertainties that augments fears.
Let us take off the smoke screen and stop giving people false hopes. There is clearly a need to be alert but not be alarmed.
Source: King Nobert Akpablie, Media & Communication Specialist
E-mail: kingnobert2@gmail.com Mob: 0241145874
NB: All views expressed in this article are that f the writer and do not represent those of any organization(s).
With schools still remain closed as a result of the Corona virus pandemic, education focused non-governmental organization, Pencils of Promise (PoP), is rolling out a Mobile Application to aid school children access free online reading materials at home.
The app, powered by World Reader, would make available about 100 free digital books via mobile devices for the beneficiary children to read under the guidance of their parents/guardians during these unusual times.
This was announced by Mr. Freeman Gobah, Country Director of PoP during a presentation of 20 hand washing stations to the Volta Regional Directorate of Education in Ho last Thursday.
According to him, the App would run free of charge on two of Ghana’s major mobile networks, MTN and Vodafone and as such encouraged teachers and parents to get it for their wards when it is finally outdoored.
About Pencils of Promise- Pencils of Promise, is a non-profit organization that builds schools and increases educational opportunities in the developing world, including in Laos, Guatemala and Ghana.- PoP formally began operation in Ghana in 2012, providing basic schools infrastructure, Teaching and Learning Materials, including e-readers to deprived schools in the Volta, Oti and Eastern regions. It also undertakes Teacher Support programmes and provides WASH facilities in partner schools.
Mr. Gobah also indicated that, his outfit was partnering with the Keta District Education Directorate to run a radio literacy programme on Radio Jubilee for students within the municipality.
All these interventions, he was hopeful would help improve literacy among the children as they while away time at home as a result of the pandemic, which has caused a ban on all public gatherings, including closure of schools in past seven weeks and counting.
On her part, the Regional Director of Education, Madam Enyonam Amafugah described Pencils of Promise was a dependable partner and commended them for complementing government’s efforts in the delivery of quality education in the region and the country as a whole.
She said in the wake of the restrictions, the Education Service has rolled out a television learning platform, Ghana Learning TV to provide daily lessons to students across all levels of pre-tertiary education.
Watch Full Video Below
She thus encouraged parents to help their wards access the virtual lessons, while advising those without television sets to engage teachers in the communities to provide lessons to the children but in strict adherence to the safety protocols against the spread of the corona virus pandemic.
Meanwhile, the Programmes Manager of PoP, Mr. Raphael Bandim said the organization was engaging teachers in its partner schools through weekly messages on safety measures and tips on how to deal with stress and anxiety during this period, in addition to reinforcing its interventions in Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH).
A statement signed by the Regional Minister, Dr. Archibald Letsa after a meeting of the Regional Public Health Emergency committee on Friday Evening, gave the breakdown of the 20 new cases as follows:
- Nineteen (19) of the cases were from the Enhanced Contact Tracing Exercise as at 1st May, 2020 and One (1) additional case also recorded from routine surveillance.- Fifteen (15) of the cases were contacts of the six 6 quarantined travelers in Aflao who were confirmed positive on the 12th of April, 2020.- The sixteenth (16th) contact to test positive is a 71-year-old woman who is closely associated with a case early on confirmed in Ho.- The remaining three (3) contacts that tested positive are contacts of cases confirmed positive in Hohoe on the 12th of April, 2020.- The one (1) additional case detected from routine surveillance is a 45-year-old man who returned to Kpando from Accra on the 20th of April to seek medical treatment after he started experiencing worsening respiratory symptoms whilst in Accra.- This brings the total number of confirmed cases detected in the Volta Region to thirty (30) as at 1st May, 2020.
All thirty (30) cases, the statement noted are in isolation and were responding appropriately to treatment.
Mass Testing
Meanwhile, the Public Health Emergency Management Committee has upon technical advice sanctioned the mass testing of groups with relatively higher risks in order to get a firmer grasp on the transmission of the virus in emerging hot spots within the Region.
So far, Aflao in the Ketu South South municipality has emerged as the epic centre of the corona virus pandemic in the region, recording, about 21 out of the 30 cases, which represents 70 percent of the region’s total case count.
The statement has therefore entreated all residents to continue to adhere to the preventive measures outlined by the Ghana Health Service so as to help contain further spread of the virus.
It has emerged that, the Ho Municipal Assembly spend about GH¢1000 to transport suspected COVID-19 samples from the municipality to Accra for testing.
The amount covers expenditure on fuel and allowances to the driver and other officials who accompany the samples to the testing centre at the Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research in Accra.
Mr. Prosper Pi-Bansah, the Municipal Chief Executive who made the disclosure during an exclusive ExTV &Volta Online COVID-19 Series Facebook Live session hosted by Rustum Gameli Senorgbe on Monday, said the assembly has already spent on about four of such trips.
“Whenever we send one sample to Accra, we spend Gh¢1000. That is the assembly fuels the vehicle, pays the driver and team who go on the trip and we have sent samples to Accra about 3 or four times."
He has therefore welcomed the opening of a testing centre at the University of Health and Allied Sciences (UHAS) in Ho by government, describing it as a great relief.
So far, the Ho municipality has two of the 10 confirmed COVID-19 cases in the Volta region, all of which are on isolation at the Regional Treatment Centre of the Ho Teaching Hospital.
The University of Health and Allied Sciences central laboratory at its main Sokode-Lokoe campus on Monday began the testing of suspected COVID-19 samples in the Volta and Oti region.
This follows weeks of preparation and training under the guidance of experts from the Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research.
Dr. Senanu Kwesi Djokoto, Deputy Regional Director in-charge of Public Health in an earlier interview with Volta Onlinesaid move was a big boost for the management of COVID-19 cases in region as it would drastically reduce the waiting period for sample results and its associated anxieties.
The Deputy Director in-charge of Public Health at the Volta Regional Health Directorate, Dr. Senanu Kwesi Djokoto has over the weekend been providing update on the region’s management of the Corona virus pandemic in an exclusive chat with Volta Online.
Dr. Djokoto who is a member of the Regional Public Health Emergency Management Committee spoke on a variety of issues including the state of the 10 confirmed cases in the region and how frontline personnel are coping with the situation.
He disclosed that, over 500 contacts have so far been traced in connection with the confirmed cases, while some front line workers had also been exposed but not infected with the virus.
He also spoke on how the pandemic has impacted other sectors of the healthcare system, revealing that regular attendance at the various facilities have seen a decline.
Dr. Djokoto also touched on the cooperation of the general public regarding adherence to the various safety protocols to contain further spread of the virus.
Fast growing epidemics such as bed bug infestation have become a major global health concern. In a recent publication reviewing the history of bed bugs infestation in Africa (Doggett et al. 2018), bed bug infestation has been documented across many African nations including several West African countries.
In East Africa, Nakuru community in Kenya documented 4000 bed affected households. Infestations were reported across several states of Nigeria. Sierra Leone documented high bed bug infestations in mentally disabled homes as far back 2002.
In Ghana, the local media has several times reported on heavy bed bug infestation commonly observed in most Senior high schools of the country. Socio-economic factor is often mentioned in relation to bed bugs and it appears that people living in low income communities are easily predisposed to severe bed bug infestations as they cannot afford the cost of effective control.
Among households in the country, we presented an Abstract publication at the recently held Ghana Science Association Biennial Conference in 2019 (Deku et al.) reporting severe bed bug infestation among households in Cape coast.
Health impacts of the infestation reported in this paper indicated that over 89% of the affected 205 households in 20 communities surveyed experiences severe bed bug bites every night following sleepless nights and sleeping outside to avoid bites. We collected over 5000 bed bugs from less than 50 household sleeping places. Generally, community bed bug infestation levels in Cape coast were high.
To reduce the spread of the novel corona virus disease (COVID 19), advocating that household compulsorily stay home to break the chain of infection has become one of the major key interventions recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO).
When people stay home they reduce the tendency of contracting and spreading the viral disease. However, severe bed bug infestation in a home is a likely demotivating incentive for households leaving in deprived communities, who have made up their minds to stay home.
A major public health problem about these insects is they render discomfort when present in human habitations due to the severe bites. Whilst most households sleep in the night to rest their bodies for the next daily activity, this is not so among bed bug affected communities.
As for these homes, households struggle to catch a sleep and had to endure the nuisance bites from this insect. Many of these households do not get enough sleep and rest due to the devastating effect of the insect in their rooms let alone during the day.
Affected households are likely to abandon their sleeping and resting places during the day when they are posed with numerous bites. Moreover, they are more likely to prefer spending more time outside their rooms to avoid bites than to subject themselves to severe bites during the day.
I am of the view that bed bug infestation is likely to threaten effectiveness of the ‘compulsory stay at home intervention’ among bed bug affected communities. Community-based interventions on bed bugs control are also required to free households from bed bugs and motivate them to stay home in other to aid in the prevention of the new pandemic.
The University of Health and Allied Sciences (UHAS) laboratory in the Volta region has become the latest certified testing centre for the Corona virus pandemic in Ghana.
The facility, which is situated at the university’s main campus at Sokode-Lokoe near Ho, is set to commence sample testing from today, Monday April 27, 2020 after weeks of preparatory works.
Dr. Senanu Kwesi Djokoto, Deputy Director, Public Health at the Volta Regional Health Directorate who disclosed this in an exclusive chat with Volta Online over the weekend, said the lab which has state-of-the-art equipment has been duly calibrated and certified by experts from the Noguchi Memorial Institute of Medical Research, the lead COVID-19 testing centre in the country.
Dr. Senanu Kwesi Djokoto
He noted that, laboratory personnel who will work on the samples have also received adequate training at Noguchi and have since conducted series of simulations to acquaint themselves with the process.
With regards to the testing capacity, Dr. Djokoto disclosed that, the facility would begin with an initial capacity of 60 samples per day and gradually scale up.
According him, the coming on board the UHAS testing centre was a big boost for the management of COVID-19 cases not only in the Volta region but also in neighbouring Oti and Eastern regions, as it would drastically reduce the waiting period for sample results and its associated anxieties.
He lauded all stakeholders, including the managements of UHAS and the Ho Teaching Hospital for their collaborative efforts in bringing the initiative to fruition.
Watch Dr. Djokoto’s full submission below
Background
- The Minister of Health, Kwaku Agyeman-Manu first gave the hint of government’s plans to support UHAS to carry out the COVID-19 testing during a surprise visit to the Ho Teaching Hospital and the Regional Directorate of the Ghana Health Service to assess their preparedness to manage a possible outbreak of the pandemic in the region.- This was also affirmed by President Akufo-Addo in his 7th national address on the pandemic, where he named UHAS as one of the institutions to join the existing four centres in the country as a COVID-19 testing centre.- Meanwhile, a total of 100,622 sample tests have been done across the existing testing centres, out of which 1,550 have proved positive.- These centres, include the Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research, the Kumasi Center for Collaborative Research in Tropical Medicine, the Veterinary laboratory in Accra and the National Public Health and Reference Lab, Korle-Bu.
The Bakpa Youth Empowerment Foundation, (BaYEF) has distributed boxes of hand sanitizers to some communities in the Bakpa Traditional Area in the Central Tongu district as part of their contributions towards combating the Corona virus pandemic in the area.
The items, according to the group’s Programs director, Yohannes Hadzor, were mobilized through the support of some individuals including, Mr. Sam Agbevem, Emefa Adeti, Gabby Alexander Hottordze, (Central Tongu MP,) and Thomas Moore Zonyrah, (Central Tongu MP) and distributed amongst 14 communities.
They were, New Bakpa, Bakpa Adzani, Bakpa Avedo, Bakpa Awadiwoe, Todzie, Kpokope, Bakpa Alabonu, Bame, Bakpa Forkpo, Old Bakpa and Bakpa Kebenu.
The team, which also included the Executive Secretary, Mr. Harry Harmond Nyaleduadzi and Communications director, Mr Confucis Caradoc Bedzina, also used the opportunity to sensitize community members on the need to practice good personal hygiene, wear nose masks, wash their hands frequently and also observe the social distancing protocols in order to keep safe from the virus. .
On their part, leaders of the beneficiary communities commended the foundation for their support and urged them to help address other challenges such potable water supply, education and healthcare.
Luck eluded a 37-year old suspected highway robber, Amadu Ibrahim last Friday when he attempted to escape with his share of booty from a robbery operation the previous night on the Kpando-Nkonya highway.
The suspect, according to the police was part of a gang of five, who in the early hours of Friday robbed occupants of a Hyundai mini bus with registration number GT 6645 – 13 on the highway linking Nkonya Asakyiri and Kpando Agbenorxoe and made away with their belongings, including cash amounting to Ghc 21,250.00, assorted mobile phones and one Macbook laptop computer.
He was however not lucky with his escape from the jurisdiction Friday afternoon, as an intelligence led operation by the Kpando Divisional Police got him busted at the Have Police Barrier, with some of the booty including one iPhone 7 and one Infinix phone and cash amount of GHȻ 7,386.10.
suspect ibrahim with his booty
A release from the Public Affairs Unit of the Volta Regional Police command copied Volta Online, indicated that, ‘On [Friday] 24 April, 2020 at about 01:50am, the Kpando Divisional Patrol team received a distress call of a robbery attack and immediately responded, but did not meet the robbers at the scene. An official complaint was later lodged by the victims and investigation commenced into the incident whilst patrol within the area was intensified in pursuit of the robbers.’
It added that, at ‘about 12:00 noon same day, suspect was arrested at the Have Police Barrier while attempting to escape from the jurisdiction with some of the booty including one iPhone 7 and one Infinix phone and cash amount of GHȻ 7,386.10.’
Further investigation, according to the release issued by Police PRO Corporal Prince Dogbatse revealed that the mobile phones retrieved from suspect Ibrahim were properties of two of the victims, adding that, the suspect was assisting Police investigation and would be duly arraigned before court while his accomplices are being pursued.
The release concluded by assuring the public of Police command’s ‘commitment to fight and solve all forms of crimes’ and also encouraged all persons to comply with the law on Imposition of Restrictions, and observe all safety protocols in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.
