Coronavirus: Large churches enforcing mask wearing religiously - GHS DG

The Ghana Health Service, GHS, has disclosed that big churches were religiously complying with a key coronavirus protocol - mask wearing.

Director General of GHS, Dr. Patrick Kuma Aboagye, made the disclosure today at a press briefing organized by the Ministry of Information to update the nation on the coronavirus fight.

"The larger churches were doing better in terms of wearing the masks. About 98.6% of the large churches wear their masks religiously, and then it drops to 76.3% for the small churches," he disclosed.

The GHS undertook a survey that involved close to 40 churches. The DG presented a series of outcomes from the survey results: from mask wearing to the availability of temperature guns and the availability and usage of handwashing facilities etc.

"So in summary, 90% of all members of the church – that is 38 churches visited wore their masks correctly, 6% did not. There was no difference in proportion of male and females. And the proportion of face mask wearing was the highest among church members compared to the ushers, protocol and security," he added.



Other results shared by the GHS DG

Less than 50% of surveyed churches sanitized their microphone and other instruments which are used by multiple persons.

Whereas church members were wearing their face masks, pastors and choir groups are not wearing them.

The percentage of pastors not wearing face masks he noted was 93% whereas that of choir groups was 63%.

He also disclosed the coronavirus spread was now stable but that the cases the country was recording were still high hence the need for Ghanaians to adhere to the safety protocols.

As of February 6, coronavirus statistics according to the Disease Surveillance Department of the Ghana Health Service were as follows:

Caseload = 73,003
Active cases = 6,938
New cases = 675
Recoveries = 65,583
Deaths = 482