It is important that we educate the general public on the importance of the Face Masks and enforce its use. The Medical Women Association of Ghana is encouraging people to wear a face mask if they have to go out to protect themselves from the Coronavirus. This follows the president’s advice on the use of face masks to prevent the spread of the virus.
The Ministry of Health and Regional Coordinating Councils across the country issued statements making the wearing of face masks mandatory in Ghana. Financial and other corporate institutions have informed the public about the ‘No Mask, No Entry’ policy. Like it is often said we are not in ordinary times so efforts to reduce the spread of the virus must be highly commended.
The compliance to the recent directive is encouraging and we can only hope that a lot more citizens adhere to it so everyone is safe.
We are seeing exponential growth in the number of face masks available on the market for sale and as this is good, it is a cause for concern. The Bureau of Public Safety has therefore called for an immediate regulation on the sale of face masks amid its importance during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Executive Director of the Bureau of Public Safety, Nana Yaw Akwada said “All sorts of people are trading in face masks in most unhygienic manners. So instead of complying with the directive, people would rather end up contaminating themselves.”
To prevent the production of sub-standard face masks, the Food and Drugs Authority (FDA) has come up with requirements for the registration of homemade masks. Although this is a good initiative, the cost for the process is high and will serve as a barrier for the production of standard face masks.
Masks are the latest commodity high on demand across the world. The World Health Organization (WHO) has warned that panic buying of gloves and masks puts more people at risk of contracting the coronavirus and also disrupts the global supply of protective gear. The WHO has sent about 500,000 sets of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) to 47 countries but as the cases of COVID-19 rise, these PPE get used up quickly. It is estimated that 89 million medical masks are required globally every single month and for gloves, 76 million are needed and this does not include goggles, face shields and gowns for health workers. The WHO is also working with governments and the Pandemic Supply Chain Network to make sure that industries in different countries increase manufacturing by 40%.
At the beginning of the COVID-19 outbreak, masks were only recommended for those who contracted the virus, health workers and those taking care of the sick but some governments have gone ahead to recommend the use of masks for everyone, one wonders why the WHO was against the use of masks by everyone. Technical Officer, WHO Africa Dr Mary Stephen on BBC Africa’s broadcast The Breakdown said “the stance of the WHO at this moment is that there is no evidence to either show or serve as a disadvantage for the use of masks in the communities and so we don’t have enough evidence to make a recommendation on that for now.
The WHO is collaborating with other research institutes to understanding the effectiveness of the use of masks by healthy persons. The recommendation for wearing of masks from WHO remains among health workers caring for the sick in the facilities, those that are sick to prevent exposure to other people and also those caring for the sick at home. So those are the people that have been recommended to use a mask.
As I said before, governments are taking initiatives to ask their communities to wear masks, so where they have chosen to do that we have given them guidance in terms of assessing the risk so that they will know the benefit or the disadvantages of asking the community to wear masks. The use of non-medical masks is something new and of course, this is something that no evidence has been generated yet in terms of what type of mask and what you need to do if you are developing a non-medical mask and also the benefit and disadvantages of wearing these masks.”
Some companies have been producing Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) in Ghana for over a month. A total of 3.6 million masks are to be distributed across the country and in a bid to test the effectiveness of masks produced in Ghana, some Nurses at the Accra Regional Hospital (Ridge), decided to introduce a flame to the various masks with the nurses who were wearing the masks blowing air to the flame, to test their effectiveness.
The N95, the normal surgical mask, a double layer surgical mask and the locally manufactured mask at Ridge were used for the experiment. The N95 and the locally manufactured mask proved to be more effective.
A reporter Monica Torres says “If you don’t wear your mask the right way during this pandemic, your risk of spreading and catching Covid-19 increases.” We must know that the face mask should not cover only the mouth, it should not be on the chin or the head but must cover both the nose and mouth to prevent droplets.
There is a need for public education on the use of face masks across the country in various languages. The Ministry of Health and Ghana Health service can put a video on Ghana’s Covid-19 website educating people on how to use the face mask. The Ministry of Information as part of their Press briefing should take some time to illustrate the use of the face masks and the media must also help in the education using their programs and social media platforms.
Some media houses are not practising what they are preaching as they are seen together in the office or studio with the guest without wearing the face mask and worse of all not practising social distancing. Some after shows come close together for pictures. Some celebrities also go about doing video clips thus gathering crowds who are without a face mask and breach the social distancing protocols. We have also seen some politicians wearing face mask wrongly by covering their mouths and leaving their nose.
For the vulnerable in society, government and philanthropists would have to provide and educate them on how to use the face mask.
We must understand that the principles that guard Covid-19 protocols are good for other diseases as well because, the measures of handwashing, social distancing and so on are general medical principles for the prevention of disease spread.
Michael Sa-Ambo -African Post Online
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Michael Sa-Ambo is a consummate writer who is passionate about development on the African continent. His area of interest is in current affairs, personal development and communication.
