The Ashanti Regional Security Council (REGSEC) would soon mandate the police to conduct snap checks on commercial vehicles with the view to apprehending those on board without nose masks.

“It is an offence to get on board a commercial vehicle without a nose mask,” Mr. Simon Osei-Mensah, the Minister-designate for the Region, cautioned.

He advised commercial drivers not to pick passengers who were not wearing their nose masks, adding that acting contrary to the directives could come with punitive measures against offenders.

“We must be disciplined and adhere to the safety protocols as instituted by the government,” the Minister-designate told the Ghana News Agency (GNA), in Kumasi, on the sidelines of the inauguration of some educational projects.

Additionally, he said, the citizenry also had the responsibility to observe all the other protocols such as the regular hand washing with soap, social distancing and the use of alcohol-based hand sanitizers, for their own safety and wellbeing.

A total of 440 deaths and 6,086 active cases relating to COVID-19 had been recorded in the country as of February 5, this year, according to the Ghana Health Service’s portal on the pandemic.

The country has so far recorded 69,255 confirmed cases since the outbreak of the pandemic in the country on March 12, 2020.

Mr. Osei-Mensah indicated that with Ashanti recording the second-highest confirmed cases and trailing Greater Accra, the REGSEC was leaving no stone unturned in getting the people to follow the protocols.

He further stressed the need for educational and civil society institutions to champion the campaign against the pandemic, noting that the new COVID-19 variants as identified in some countries could be deadly.

Beneficiaries of the educational projects, ranging from classroom to dormitory blocks, included T.I Ahmadiyya, Serwaa Nyarko, Kumasi Anglican and Armed Forces Senior High Schools (SHSs).