Kojo Oppong Nkrumah
The COVID-19 beast can only be killed through a concerted application of the President’s set of protocols, especially social distancing and the use of face masks.
It is for this reason that we find yesterday’s announcement by the Greater Accra Regional Coordinating Council’s declaration of the use of face masks mandatory in their jurisdiction among other standards appropriate response to the pandemic.
The region will stand out among its colleagues as one with promising standards towards stopping the rampaging contagion, which as experts claim, is a step ahead of mankind.
The mandatory face mask regimen is particularly prominent among the other measures announced yesterday, its ability to protect both the user against being infected and infecting others giving it a special edge.
The measures could not have come at a better time. With the partial lockdown no longer in place and Ghanaians expected to abide by the hygiene protocols and to be generally responsible for their individual safety, such measures are just apt.
Considering the level of indiscipline or even recklessness on the part of some Ghanaians, the severity of COVID-19 notwithstanding, we think a certain level of coercion is necessary if the goal of containing adequately the global pestilence is to be achieved.
Killing the beast is a task which must be shared by all Ghanaians; each of us playing a certain role.
While policymakers deal with the rather complex subject of providing the necessary infrastructure necessary for the containment of the virus and treating the infected, it behoves the citizenry to engage in practices which protect them and their neighbours from becoming victims of the ravaging pestilence.
The last presidential COVID-19 address which reversed the partial lockdown did not make the use of face mask compulsory although the President encouraged his compatriots to use it because that is an effective means of protection.
Even as we doff our hats for the measures announced yesterday, we would be quick to add that the wonderful efforts would come to naught unless they are replicated countrywide.
Here is, therefore, demanding that all regional ministers order the various MMDAs to implement the directives of the President forthwith, especially the mandatory use of face masks.
Another area which requires ingenuity in managing is the congestion at our marketplaces, fertile grounds for infection. The assemblies should enforce the wearing of the masks, including the suspension of the special market days because such weekly occasions are near impossible to manage.
The assemblies should be able to also sanction commercial vehicle operators who admit passengers without masks.
We are excited about the ‘No Face Masks, No Entry’ at the facades of markets; the assemblies should be able to have special staff enforce directives at such facilities.
The education which the assemblies are being directed to undertake should encourage passengers and others at marketplaces to query persons who breach the standards and to even deny them access. We hope that the foregone would not turn out to be pipedreams but serve as practicable measures towards killing the beast.