Head of Community Health at the University of Ghana Medical School, Prof Alfred Yawson has called for intensive public education in the fight against Covid-19.

Prof Yawson added that stiffer measures need to be implemented, particularly with the detection of the Delta variant in the country.

“If it is public education, we need to step up, if it is legislation, we need to take stricter measures,” he said on Monday.

Speaking on JoyNews’ AM Show, Prof Alfred Yawson said people who flout the laws on the measures should be sanctioned to deter others from doing the same.

His comment was in respect of news that 134 students and a staff of Achimota School have tested positive for Covid-19. Most of the cases are said to be the new Delta Variant.

The Director-General of the Ghana Health Service (GHS), Dr Patrick Kuma Aboagye, mentioned earlier that the first three cases were detected in some students between June 14 and 16 this year.

Prof Yawson recalled that since the outbreak of the virus in 2020, the country has been able to manage the situation with measures such as the constant wearing of mask, frequent washing and sanitising of hands and maintaining social distance. He advised that these measures must be revisited and enforced.

 “Also put in place a friendlier and more enforceable regime of the rules so that people would be made to do the right thing, ” he urged.

Prof Yawson, however, noted that punishment and sanctions, may not be the only way to help mitigate the spread of the virus, therefore, a need to include some form of encouragement while at it.

“You see people who are not wearing a mask, you put in sanctions, you give them some community work to do and you provide them with a mask so that it is not just the prevention and the sanction but also a protection aspect of it should be enforced.”

The GHS at a press conference on Sunday revealed that a total of 1,212 Covid-19 samples sequenced countrywide since July 1 have also shown the dominance of the Alpha variant.

Also, research conducted by institutions such as Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research (NMIMR), West African Centre for Cell Biology of Infectious Pathogens (WACCBIP) and University of Health and Allied Sciences (UHAS), confirmed community spread of the Delta strain which is known to have a higher transmission rate.

The fight against the virus, Prof Yawson said, is a collective one, therefore, “we need to make sure that we get everybody to have a mask; in our market places, at the our community levels, at the schools, we always must get the community leaders on board.”

Again, he recalled, “there was a time we had prominent chiefs, prominent leaders talking about it, this is the time we need that effort again. We need to show that example at the community level,” he told host, Benjamin Akakpo.