Former President John Mahama has given his first public statement on the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19), noting that even though factors that cause diseases such as COVID-19 are daunting, they are not insurmountable if the global community act decisively as a unit.

“The Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is posing a serious threat to global security, economy, trade, and transport. While the WHO has not yet declared it a pandemic, they urge countries to take aggressive containment measures.

In the late 20th and early 21st century, we appear to be experiencing an emergence of many new infectious diseases- Zika, Ebola, MERS, SARS among others. This is scary. But it is consistent with the changing nature of infectious diseases as a result of increasing population, poverty, migration, conflicts, economic and technological development, antimicrobial resistance, climate change, inadequate health infrastructure and public health policies.

These multiple contributory factors are daunting but not insurmountable if the global community, which has become intricately linked due to globalisation will act decisively together,” he stated.

The former President regretted that at the onset of the outbreak of the disease in the Wuhan Province of China, the response from the global community was lukewarm.

“Unfortunately, the international response had been lukewarm from the time of the outbreak from its original source in Wuhan, China,” he said.

He then added that unlike the decisive action that was taken against the Ebola virus in 2014 in West Africa, such action is yet to be seen with regard to COVID-19.

“Unfortunately, we are yet to see the kind of leadership, definite and concerted actions, which were mounted against the Ebola virus disease infection in West Africa a few years ago,” he recalled.

He again called for aggressive education and awareness campaigns so as to deal with COVID-19 in especially Africa.

“Africa is vulnerable and has not been spared. The first case reported in West Africa has been in Nigeria. This must be a period for the implementation of aggressive preventive measures while we stamp out specific incidences.

We must mount a strong educational and awareness campaign on the nature and mode of transmission of COVID-19 as was done in the period of the Ebola disease outbreak. Discouraging handshaking, frequent handwashing, use of alcohol-based hand sanitisers at public gatherings such as churches, mosques, funerals etc. should be promoted as soon as possible. Measures such as establishment of quarantine centres, provision of hazmat suits, temperature monitoring and traveller tracking are urgently required,” he advised.