Correspondent from the Upper East Region

The Kasena-Nankana West District Director of Health Service, Hypolite Yeleduor, has urged the public, especially those living in areas close to Ghana’s borders, to report foreigners who enter the country through unapproved routes, to state security agencies.

Mr. Yeleduor said the offering of such information to authorities was one of the surest ways that could help the country in her efforts to combat the spread of the coronavirus as most of the recorded cases were imported.

Speaking exclusively to GhanaWeb’s Senyalah Castro in an interview, Mr. Yeleduor said there have been recent reports in the district of how people from the Burkina Faso side of the border tried to dodge rigorous checks by using unapproved routes that are far from the watch of the security services positioned at the Paga border.

“We live close to the border which is very porous in nature. But if you get to the border now, you’ll see the police and immigration patrolling. Yesterday, there was this report of some people getting into the country from the extreme end of the border towards the Nakolo area. They used unapproved routes on the blind side of the security services”.

“So when people see foreigners entering through an unapproved route in your community like what happened yesterday, we should confront the people or person and let the person pass through the border for the necessary checkups to be taken. There’s a hotline for the security service and community members should take interest in that”.

Mr. Yeleduor said the district health directorate was also making arrangements to position some volunteers in the communities along the borderline to monitor and report such illegal movements to authorities.

“We have some volunteers and the resolution was that we should get them along those areas to take the issue up and report to us. If the person resists to do the right thing, call the hotline and the security personnel will be available to support and get the person arrested”.

On the preparedness of the district against the disease, Mr. Yeleduorsaid a special training on the handling of COVID-19 cases have been given to three staff of the Port Health, who the directorate intends to use to orientate more staff, while waiting for a more rigorous training from the regional team.

He said though the district did not have a standard COVID-19 holding room, provisions have been made in the male ward at the Paga district hospital where cases will be sent and monitored.

“There hasn’t been a major training for the staff and that is a big challenge and that is why we are trying to use the port health staff to train the others. We haven’t also gotten a standard holding room. But we have set aside the male ward which we are trying to setup for holding suspected cases”.

He said, aside converting the Ebola centre at the Paga border into a holding room to augment what is in the hospital, efforts were underway to setup holding rooms in other healthcentres within the district to better fight the disease.

Mr. Yeleduor commended the traditional authorities in the area for taking the outbreak of the disease seriously and helping enforce the precautionary measures put together by the government.

He appealed to authorities to provide staff of the health directorate with more Personal Protective Equipment (PPEs) and fuel so that staff can carry out more sensitization in rural communities.

He urged the public to maintain clean environments and practice handwashing.
In a related development, the Kasena-Nankana West District Assembly on Tuesday, 17th March, 2020, held a public health emergency management committee meeting to assess the preparedness level and deliberate on possible ways to tackle the COVID-19 pandemic in the area.

Gerard Ataogye, the District Chief Executive (DCE) in his opening address stressed the need for the various stakeholders to effectively play their roles to ensure a safer and healthy environment for the people.

He urged the stakeholders to accord seriousness to the issue of the COVID-19 pandemic and help implement the directives of the President and health professionals to curb the spread of the viral disease.

“We must not approach the COVID-19 pandemic with fear but with a clear conscience of adherence to all the preventive protocols”.

The DCE gave an assurance that the district will work in close collaboration with stakeholders and the public to combat the spread of the disease.