Former President John Mahama

Former President John Mahama says he has decided to abandon his unannounced visits to registration centres over the lack of regards to COVID-19 safety protocols at polling centres.

The NDC flagbearer began the announced visits in the Volta region last week to personally observe the ongoing voter registration exercise.

But in a Facebook post, Mr. Mahama said there is low awareness of the COVID-19 protocols among the citizenry.

“I have cut short my unannounced visit to some voter registration centres in Accra and Tema this afternoon. This is because of the very low awareness of the #COVID19 protocols including physical distancing and the wearing of masks.

“We have to step up public education on COVID-19 so that people can appreciate the risk reduction protocols” Mr Mahama wrote on Facebook.

Meanwhile, five more persons infected with coronavirus have died in Ghana, taking the death toll to 153, figures from the Ghana Health Service reveal.

763 new cases have been recorded taking the national caseload to 28, 430.

“A total of 763 new cases were reported on July 17, 2020. These are samples that were taken from the period 7 June to 16 July 2020…but reported from the lab on July 17,” the GHS said in its latest update.

The total number of recoveries have shot up to 24, 901 with the active cases at 3, 376.

Regional breakdown:

Greater Accra Region – 15,328

Ashanti Region – 6,151

Western Region – 2,310

Central Region – 1,155

Eastern Region – 1,087

Volta Region – 511

Bono Region – 421

Bono East Region – 294

Upper East Region – 282

Northern Region – 271

Western North Region – 216

Oti Region – 147

Ahafo Region – 116

Upper West Region – 75

Savannah Region – 57

North East Region – 9

 

Source: Ghana/Starrfm.com.gh