MEMOIRS OF A CONCERNED CITIZEN ON COVID-19 (PART 3)

What if education is the major hindrance to the Government’s fight against COVID-19? Is it too late to intensify education on COVID-19 on an extensive scale in our local languages? I do not think so! Until the fight is won, it can never be too late.

The Central Government is dealing with a greater load; saving the lives of our infected, battling the inhumane acts of social phobia on Ghanaians and other Africans in China, food security, and the economy (since almost all economic activities are tied-up) among other things.
Ministry of Information is educating through the media but that is not enough. How many media houses do we have across the nation? How many people make it a habit to listen to radios or watch the television, and how many communities do these airwaves even reach?

Read also: MEMOIRS OF A CONCERNED CITIZEN ON COVID-19

This makes me ask the importance of the Local Government. Like I said before, The Central Government is probably trying its best but this battle is beyond the Central Government alone. This is a battle that needs to be fought at every administrative level. Decentralization is key to winning the war against COVID-19.

We need a community-level education. The directorates of education and health need to collaborate and set up teams of educators. We need to make use of the communication systems in the communities and use the information service vans. Where there is no public address system, personnel provided with PPEs must be deployed to educate the people.
How do we get these personnel? Schools are on break and teachers are unemployed at home in a battle that needs educators, especially science teachers.

We need personnel provided with basic PPEs on the ground to educate people in our local languages on the science of how the virus behaves and the science behind the precautionary measures and the need to strictly adhere to them;
Are we just washing our hands or we know why we need to wash or sanitize them well and frequently?

Do we understand why we need to stay home and not go beyond our communities? Thus, avoid traveling to the rural areas with the idea of escaping from the virus among other flimsy excuses out of ignorance. We need to reach out to the villages (Our food baskets) quickly because people are traveling from the COVID-19 hotspots to the rural areas. The virus moves when we move!

Do we understand the virus could be airborne under some conditions? If it is airborne, do we understand the motion of air molecules and how heated molecules move faster considering our temperature levels? Do we know about asymptomatic people?
Thus, the need to practice serious social (physical) distancing and treat everyone as a potential carrier of the virus.

Do we know nobody contracts COVID-19 willingly and there is no known cure yet? Nobody must be stigmatized for an infection that is transmitted from person to person and has the tendency of being airborne since individual discipline does not matter but collective discipline is what counts in controlling the spread.

Fortunately, the chances of survival exceed the death rate and so they should stay calm and fear not but take precautionary measures. Nobody can tell who would survive or not. People show no symptoms but end up dying.

The Assemblies need to step up! Chief executives need to enforce the precautionary measures with their available resources now! Not after recording cases. We need proactive measures to stay ahead of the virus. Promote COVID-19 education while the Central Government does its part.
If we get the education right, we would not have authorities in PPEs sharing food for the poor and exposed citizens without practicing the necessary social distancing. We risk increasing the rate of infection in the name of providing food (without discipline).
Data is said to put things in perspective but also COVID-19 is novel. If we want to depend solely on prerecorded data to make decisions, we might always be a step behind in flattening the curve. Nobody knows the future of the virus hence, the need for robust measures. The full judgment cannot be given now but only after COVID-19.

I would like to call on the youth to contribute to this fight. Let us use our social media accounts to educate people. Talk to someone if you can. Let us stop spreading misleading information on social media. Remember, it is punishable by law (Electronic Communications Act, 2008) .
This is a national call. It’s time to practice what the patriotic song, “Arise Ghana youth for your country, the nation demands your devotion…” teaches us all.
I hope those at the helms of affairs would consider this.
God be with us all.

Edmund E. Terkpernor,

April 13, 2020,

Cape Coast.