A survivor of COVID-19, Frederick Kweku Drah, has cautioned citizens to take the respiratory disease seriously and strictly comply with the preventive and restrictive measures against spreading it.
They should also stop stigmatising those who test positive and their relatives, saying it traumatised them and placed them under socio-economic hardships.
Mr Drah gave the advice at the Ministry of Information’s media briefing to provide an update on the COVID-19 situation and related matters.
“Covid-19 is real,” Mr Drah repeated for emphasis, in English and three local languages, while sharing his story of when he first felt feverish at night, going to the hospital the following day, receiving his Covid-19 test results at home, being transported by ambulance for admission, his recovery process and the stigmatisation he faced thereafter.
Mr Drah said he initially felt like he was under a death a sentence, an experience everybody should endeavour to avoid.
Hence the importance of staying home when there was no justifiable cause to go out, observing social distancing, washing the hands regularly with soap under running water, using alcohol-based hand sanitisers and coughing and sneezing into disposable tissues.
“When I was admitted I thought that was the end, but on the third day, I saw great improvement in my condition, and by the grace of God I have fully recovered so I know that others who have tested positive will also recover,” he said.
He explained that he contracted the virus when he came into contact with some foreign nationals, but started showing the symptoms of bodily aches, an abnormally high temperature and dry cough on the night of March 17.
However, his test result was communicated to him on March 19, and he became the first covid-19 patient to be admitted to the Ga East Municipal Hospital.
“The supportive treatment I received throughout my recovery process was encouraging, but the stigma my family and I went through was serious; but I thank God for the assistance of a psychologist,” he added.
He commended health workers, especially the doctors and nurses at the Ga East Hospital, for the excellent service they were rendering to persons with the disease.
He, therefore, urged Ghanaians to rather encourage people who showed the signs and symptoms of the disease to call the emergency lines for them to be attended to early.
Mr Drah’s wife and children, however, tested negative.
Ghana has so far confirmed a total of 641 cases of COVID-19, with 83 recovered patients and eight deaths.
