The National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE) has advised the youth and students not to use jargons as names to stigmatize victims of the COVID-19 in their communities but be agents against stigmatisation.

According to the Commission, any other form of stigmatization was a great threat to efforts to stop the spread of the pandemic.

The Commission has observed that the youth, particularly students mostly developed their jargons and “strange” names to tease their friends in real-life situations.

Such attitudes if not stopped, could drawback the national and collective effort being made in the prevention of the COVID-19.

Madam Doris Gbongbo, the Bono Regional Director of NCCE gave the advice when she was speaking to the final year students of the Nkrankwanta Senior High/Technical School at Nkrankwanta in the Dormaa West District of Bono Region on Friday as part of the Commission's community outreach education and sensitization programme on the COVID-19 prevention.

Mad. Gbongbo implored the students to take up the challenge to be agents of change by educating people in their communities against the stigmatization of COVID-19 infected persons.

She stated "coughing, a rise in temperature and sneezing are normal", implying that not everyone in that state of health may have COVID-19.

Mad. Gbongbo appealed to the general public to avoid rejecting COVID-19 patients because “having COVID-19 is not a death sentence” and pleaded that "in case somebody tested positive and recovered, let us accept them as our own".

Mr. Peter Kwabena Gyasi, the Deputy Regional Director of the Commission encouraged the students not to be scared by the COVID-19 situation and rather concentrate on their studies to pass their examination.

He stressed that wearing of nose mask was not a substitute for social and physical distancing and asked the students to avoid crowding themselves and practice all the necessary safety protocols to stay safe.

Later, Mad. Gbongbo and her team were joined by officers of the District Assembly to educate traders at the Nkrankwanta market on the prevalence of the COVID-19 and dangers it posed on human life.

The Commission also held sensitization on a local radio station for the benefit of the entire population in the District and ended the outreach with a visit to Frimpongkrom, a community in the District located on the Ghana-Cote d' Ivoire border.