The Municipal Office of the Information Services Department (ISD) in the Ahafo Ano North Municipal in the Ashanti Region has intensified the education on the fight of the coronavirus pandemic in the country.
Though, the Municipality is not part of the 49 recorded cases in the region currently, the ISD is leaving no stone unturned as it has reached out to over 200 communities making up the municipality. Adopting all the communication channels such the use of improvised information van by the Assembly, FM station, community information centres and, meeting smaller groups, the ISD has communicated the message of the precautionary measures and the symptoms of coronavirus to the general populace.
Among the general message on the observation of the health protocols such as washing and sanitizing of hands, social distancing, coughing and sneezing into the elbow and staying at home, the ISD has also included the daily update on the Ghana Health Services Website to caution the public about the reality of the pandemic.
With the help of the Ahafo Ano North Municipal Assembly, the Ministry of Information, the office of the honourable Member of Parliament, the ISD has visited at least three times every community within the municipality in a six weeks educational campaign.
According to the Municipal Information Officer (MIO) Mr Kofi Offen, there were initial challenges about lack of information on the pandemic in the communities but towards the close of the six weeks campaign, the public now understands and have appreciated the existence of the disease and how close it is to them, ‘the people now are very much conscious about the symptoms of the disease and also about the health protocols to stay safe’ he said. The team, the MIO continuous, has provided the public about all the emergency contact lines both within the municipality and the national 211 and 311 where they can lodge complain and make enquires.
In a related development, both the Municipal Assembly and the Tepa Traditional Council has ban the Thursday market day at Tepa. This according to the Municipal Chief Executive Martina Appiah Nyantekyie are part of measures to ensure that the Municipality do not record any case of covid-19. Again both the Assembly and the MP honourable Sanid Adamu Suleman have made various donations in the fight against the pandemic.
Earlier, the Municipal Health Directorate reported of two suspected cases at Tepa. Samples of these individuals were taken and tested at the Kumasi Centre for Collaborative Research (KCCR) and the result came out negative.
Source: Ernest Kofi Offen/ISD-Tepa