Kwaku Agyeman-Manu with Professor Stanley Okolo during the meeting
President Nana Akufo-Addo has urged health ministers in the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) sub-region not to be content with the apparent success in containing the COVID-19 pandemic.
He said despite the sub-region’s ability to stem the tide, which has led to the removal of a number of restrictions, it is too early to claim victory over the virus.
He, therefore, admonished the health authorities to insist on the full adherence to the existing protocols to avoid any flare ups.
President Akufo-Addo made the remarks in a speech read on his behalf by Ghana’s Minister of Health, Kwaku Agyeman-Manu, at the 23rd Ordinary Session of the ECOWAS Assembly of Health Ministers in Accra.
He said ECOWAS has a lot to be proud of in terms of how it collectively managed the devastating impact of the COVID-19 pandemic against earlier skepticisms.
He said skeptics were quick to argue that the already fragile health systems, coupled with other factors, were enough for a devastating effect in the sub-region.
“The vaccine politics that subsequently played out, is still fresh in our minds,” he said.
President Akufo-Addo said, “Despite the challenges, we must not allow the economic impact of COVID-19 to increase the social inequalities in health between and within our countries. We must use this opportunity to reform and improve our healthcare systems.”
Director General, West Africa Health Organisation (WAHO), Professor Stanley Okolo, in his address said the sub-region faces many health challenges and recurrent disease out breaks although there has been some progress.
He indicated that the combined effect of climate change, migration and weak health systems, coupled with the COVID-19 pandemic two years ago, raise the question of health security in recent years.
Prof. Okolo thus stressed the need for health indicators to be improved in all focus areas, including maternal and neonatal health, child, adolescent and youth health, and the dissemination of good practices, medicines and vaccines, as well as health information.
BY Jamila Akweley Okertchiri