The Ahafo Ano North Municipal Assembly (AANMA) of the Ashanti region has distributed over 6000 face masks to cooperate institutions and the general public in the Municipality as part of efforts to combat the spread of the novel coronavirus pandemic.

Led by the MCE Martina Appiah Nyantekyie, the team mostly made up of staff of the Assembly has reached out to every trader and staff of corporate bodies within the municipality.

Distributing the face masks, the team also took turns to remind the public about the reality of the pandemic and the need to follow all the safety protocols as prescribed by the Ghana Health Service.

During the exercise, it was observed that people were not adhering to the social distancing measures as it was business as usual especially for traders and some patrons of the Tepa market.

Also, the veronica buckets donated by the Assembly at some vantage points in the market were empty; but for some shops that have them at their entry points, one could have concluded that hand washing protocols were also not observed in the market. This situation forced the team to threaten the traders of a total lockdown of the market.

The next place the team visited was the Tepa main lorry station, here the team interacted with the leadership of the various transport unions and cautioned them of the need to remain safe under this pandemic. Here, face masks were distributed to everyone present as well as passengers at the station.

The team finally ended at the premises of the Assembly where donations of face masks, hand sanitizers, gun thermometers, veronica buckets, and waste bins were made to Departments, Agencies and other cooperate bodies in the Municipality.

In an interview with the Information Services Department (ISD), the MCE disclosed that the Assembly will continue with the exercise throughout the Municipality and it aims of distributing over 12000 face masks, hand sanitizers and some 200 veronica baskets and waste bins.

In a related development, the Municipality last week recorded its first case of COVID-19. The case according to the Municipal Health Directorate involved a pregnant woman who had visited the Municipality from Accra. It continues that, the woman got ill upon arrival and visited the Manfo CHPS compound, with a high temperature and other symptoms of COVID-19, the nurses informed the Health Directorate and arrangements were made for her referral to the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital in Kumasi where her samples sent to KCCR confirmed positive. Her pregnancy was terminated by the hospital and is currently on admission responding to treatment where contact tracing is ongoing at the municipality.