The Ghana Health Service, Ministry of Information, and Partners have organised a sensitisation for the Volta Regional House of Chiefs to sensitise them to COVID-19 protocols, hypertension, and diabetes.
Director of Health Promotion Division of the Ghana Health Service and Leader of Risk Communication and Social Mobilisation for Ghana’s COVID-19 Response Team, Dr Da Costa Aboagye, educated the chiefs on COVID-19, its associated stigma and Non-Communicable Diseases.
He emphasised that smokers are likely to be more vulnerable to COVID-19 as it destroys the lung tissue making individuals susceptible to the virus which causes respiratory infection.
He said the act of smoking increases the chance of transmission of the virus from infected hands.
Dr Da Costa said the pandemic has provoked social stigma and discrimination against people infected and this behavior discourages infected persons from accessing health care early.
He, therefore, asked Ghanaians to build trust in the health system and show empathy to those infected.
