PREPARATION IS PEACE

PREPARATION IS PEACE

Identified Mistakes in Our Physical Preparation to Prevent Coronavirus Pandemic

All measures to contain the Coronavirus Pandemic in Ghana for example are good, but much still need to be done. The first mistake is when immigrants from infected nations like China (Fig. 4B) entered Ghana without being checked or quarantined (Adu, 2020; Ghananewspage.com., 2020). My second observation is government of Ghana initial decision to suspend most public activities, leaving the serious one which is night clubs (Desk, 2020). In my opinion, many people (mostly the youths) meet at these night clubs and there are more closed body contacts there (Fig 1) than other public places like; churches/mosques, workshops/conferences, schools (especially the universities), and even in some markets. For this reason, the government decision to later ban night clubs (Anim, 2020) is a move in the right direction.

Figure 1: Some Youths Dancing at a Night Club with Close Contacts (Retrieved from https://kasapafmonline.com/2020/03/covid-19... on 22.03.2020 at 12:43PM).

 

People at these night clubs can be difficult to control when they are drunk; even a Pastor and his church members went against the President’s order to suspend religious gatherings (Mawutor, 2020). Meanwhile, it has been projected that: “15 million Ghanaians could contract coronavirus” because of the horizontal transmission (Antwi, 2020). My third observation is, though we may quarantine suspected patients and run away from Coronavirus in the crowd, it may still follow us home in our bank notes (Sanster, 2020) and other frequently touched objects (Bhatta et al., 2018). A cashier in the counter, can count money for more than five (5) people with the same glove, but these are monies deposited by customers who could possibly carry the virus (Fig. 2). I also observe that though some public places have security officers at their entrances, customers are opening to enter and leave these places; this is risky since doors handles can be spreading the virus and other infections, as revealed by research findings (Bhatta et al., 2018; Fakhoury & Nawas, 2018). Though there is education on hand sanitizing, it is not possible 
that everyone will practice that as seen in (Fig. 3); some can even forget too.

	Figure 2: Infected Banknotes Can Spread Coronavirus; Right, Cashier in gloves touching money (Retrieved from https://pbs.twimg.com/media... on 17th March 2020 at 11:02PM).

Figure 3: Have Time to Wash your Hands Regularly, and after Touching any Objects

On 21^st March 2020, I observed a man at a public place washed his hands. I noticed that many customers were using the veronica buckets that have been provider with soap and water. This gentleman after washing his hands, used one of them to close the tap; without using some clean water in his other hand to rinse it. After that too, he mobbed both hands with a rag that looks dirty, and rubbed them together. People like him may rather end up picking the virus from the tap’s head since frequently touched objects are found to infect people (Bhatta et al., 2018). Have time to wash your hands very well, do not do it in a rush or anyhow (See Fig. 3). I have also come across a picture online in which a supposedly recovered Ghanaian is seen in a picture with a health worker in Personal Protection Equipments (PPEs) hugging him (Fig. 4A). Meanwhile, a video on you tube by BBC., (2020) has confirmed that Coronavirus infected patients who recovered were re-infected and tested positive for the virus again. It could be because of some these mistakes! In the first place, why are you wearing the PPEs, and yet you are hugging people with it?

	Figure 4: A Recovered Ghanaian Hugged by Healthcare Provider “A” and Chinese Immigrants “B” (Retrieved from https://pinaxonline.com/at-long-last-7th-...  on 20.03.2020 at 12:13AM & https://ghananewspage.com/coronavirus-ghanaians on 27.02.2020 at 11:42AM).

I have seen many people wearing nose/face masks of different types, most of them are not health workers. There should have been live education on TV long time ago on how to properly wear and remove these masks (Fig. 4) and gloves (Fig. 2, right), when China first started recording their cases. These items are also supposed to be changed frequently (Gallagher, 2020; Hamzelou, 2020), but I am not sure that most of them are doing that. As Ghana, for example, is now in horizontal transmission where local residents are also infected (Antwi, 2020)., and the cases keep increasing with even two deaths (Staff, 2020; Osei, 2020; GHS, 2020), we must pay attention to other sources like pure water (Halage et al., 2015; Kwakye-Nuako et al., 2007), barbering shops, hair dressing saloons (Moore & Miller, 2007) that are capable of transmitting infections. Since researchers have found out that these sources, especially barbering shops (Shiffer, 2018; Moore & Miller, 2007) and saloons (Moore & Miller, 2007) transmit infections, they can possibly transmit this virus too.

I will recommend that, in addition to the measures that are put in place:

v  Doors at all public places should be opened for customers by the security officials at posts to help reduce the risk of spreading infections through infected door handles.

v  If possible, doors' handles of all public places should be disinfected at regular interval

v  There should be more education to the general public on hand washing.

v  As part of this education, customers entering public places should be given supervised hand washing by experts. They should also in turn teach others at their homes.

v  If you will not dry your hands with a clean tissue or cloth; or allow them to air dry, then it is better you don’t wash them. Just disinfect them with 70% alcohol, please!

v  If you disinfect your hands, disinfect whatever object, like phone or keys, that you hold.

v  The public should be educated on live TV on how to wear or remove gloves or nose masks, though wearing of gloves by cashiers and market women should not be encouraged now.

v  Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs), Religious Bodies, and rich individuals should support this good course by donating gloves or other consumables to public places.

v  All health workers must avoid hugging patients to express their moods/feelings, because they may be re-infecting recovered patients or share the virus amongst people through.

v  There must be laws to deal with people who would be stubborn in preventing the spread of this virus and all other infections.

Below are some of the references that I have used. Thank you for Reading. Your comments, suggestions and criticisms are warmly welcomed. Feel free to comment on any issue.

Some References:

Adu, D. K. (2020). Coronavirus: Ghanaians at risk as travellers from China enter Ghana unchecked. News., Retrieved from https://www.adomonline.com/coronavirus-ghanaians-at-risk-as-travellers-from-china-enter-ghana-unchecked/ on 27.02.2020 at 11:35PM.

Anim, K. (2020). COVID-19: Akufo Addo bans night clubs from operating. . News, Retrieved from https://kasapafmonline.com/2020/03/covid-19-akufo-addo-bans-night-clubs-from-operating/ on 22.03.2020 at 12:43PM.

Antwi, P. (2020). 15 million Ghanaians could contract coronavirus. . News., Retrieved from https://mobile.ghanaguardian.com/15-million-ghanaians-could-contract-coronavirus-research-scientist on 23.03.2020 at 7:18PM.

BBC. (2020). Coronavirus: Recovered patients testing positive again - BBC News. . News, Retrieved from https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=3-wf3Nb8tzI&feature=youtu.be on 22.03.2020 at 5;05PM.

Bhatta, D. R. (2018). Bacterial contamination of frequently touched objects in a tertiary care hospital of Pokhara, Nepa: how safe are our hands? Antimicrobial Resist Infect Control, 7:97. Doi: 10.1186/s13756-018-0385-2.