Wearing of nose mask and social distancing as a preventive measure against the COVID-19 are hardly being practised along the eastern corridor.
Travelling through the eastern corridor last Wednesday, Ghanaian Times observed from Kpassa through Damanko in the Oti Region to Bimbilla and Yendi in the Northern Region, people enjoying their normal life with little attention to the COVID-19 safety protocols.
Some of the people interviewed by Ghanaian Times said although they were aware of the disease, their communities had not recorded any case.
Some who had the nose mask were not wearing them properly, as they covered their mouth leaving their nose, and others pulling it under their chin. Handwashing stands were uncommon at public places along the route.
Although, commercial drivers plying the routes insist on the wearing of nose mask as a protective measure against droplets from infected person before boarding the vehicle, communities along the road hardly observe the health protocols.
Ghanaian Times has observed people in groups chit chatting under sheds and trees, others busily going about their businesses, while others having fun with indoor games like playing of cards.
“We are in our houses, we hardly go out when we come from our farms, i have the nose mark but now I’m not using it, I have not heard of anyone having the disease here, one man from Danado, a farming community told Ghanaian Times
‘I have three nose masks, but they are in the house,” Nurudeen Alhassan told me when I spotted him loading yams into a truck at Nassanba in the Nanumba South District of the Northern Region.
“Here we have not recorded any case so it is common to see people not wearing the nose mask here, it’s as if we are saved,” Abdul – Aziz Ibrahim, a teacher in Yendi told Ghanaian times.
There is growing concern over community spread of the disease, ostensibly from laxity in observing the safety protocols.
Ghana’s case load has crossed the 21,000 mark and 122 have so far succumbed to the disease.
Northern Region has recorded 147 cases while Oti Region has 112 cases.
By Salifu Abdul-Rahaman
