The Tema West Municipal Assembly (TWMA), has called on residents to adhere strictly to the COVID-19 prevention protocols to ensure their safety.

Mrs Adwoa Amoako, Tema West Municipal Chief Executive, made the call in a sessional address during the Assembly’s ordinary general meeting.

Mrs Amoako revealed that the Municipality had so far recorded 808 positive COVID-19 cases out of which two had died while 800 had recovered and been discharged.

She appealed to the public to observe the safety protocols, and encouraged residents to continue educating each other on the best practices relating to social distancing, regular hand washing, wearing of nose masks and using hand sanitizers.

She expressed with dismay, the underestimation of the severity of the Corona pandemic among the general populace, saying how sad it was “to see some people playing down the pandemic in this Municipality especially the markets at TEXPO and Community 2. Similar things are seen in our streets, shops and almost everywhere”.

The MCE indicated that the Assembly was looking at appropriate ways to ensure strict compliance to the protocols, so as to bring sanity in the Municipality.

She revealed that the challenge in complying with the protocols was also apparent in schools, but affirmed that these challenges were being handled by the authorities.

On schools reopening for final year students, she disclosed that her outfit had played a key role in facilitating and distributing veronica buckets, bowls, stands, taps, infrared thermometers, and soaps among others to the various academic institutions.

She said a total of 26,867 face masks in addition to the other sanitation items had been forwarded to 21 public and 91 private junior high schools and three senior high schools in the Municipality.

Touching on other sectors of the Municipality, she said between January and June 2020, the Internally Generated Fund (IGF) accrued by TWMA had totaled Ghs 3,058,102.67. She described it as very low.

To address flooding in Communities 17, 18, 19 and 20 as well as Klagon, Devtraco and Sakumono village, she indicated that the Assembly was undertaking dredging and desilting of the drains, and ensuring the regular evacuating of refuse.

She observed that the perennial flooding of the area was due to heaps of refuse that had blocked the drains that connected Sakumono’s outflow into the sea.

Mrs Amoako announced that as a result, they had “marked some structures to be demolished on waterways, green belts and wetlands to pave way for rain water to flow freely.” Adding that the Assembly would take steps towards the demolition of the structures on situated on the waterways, and would “strengthen the sensitization exercise to mitigate disasters”.