The Executive Director for African Centre for Health Policy Research and Analysis, Dr Thomas Anabah, seems to doubt the discovery of the Delta strain of the Covid-19 in Kumasi.
According to Dr Anabah, the recent statement by the Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly (KMA) on the discovery of the Delta variant of Covid-19 since December cannot be comprehended since its signs or signals did not have any impact on the population.
“For Kumasi to come out and tell us that they have recorded the Delta variant as far back as December, some of us will not understand it because that variant is very fast spreading. What happened to the figures in Kumasi after December? We didn’t see any terrible surge or what did they do with that client or that patient who had the Delta variant? Did they isolate him and did they notify the Ghana Health Service?”
Dr Anabah added that the ambiguity of information presented by two different bodies within the same institution does not augur well for communication.
“This ambiguity, this answers and stories coming from the same institution with two different tails does not augur well for our communication. I think that the two bodies must sit down and reconcile their notes because one cannot tell us a one story.”
He has, therefore, urged the Ghana Health Service and the Ministry of Health to mend their communication gap so that information passed to the general public will be taken seriously.
“I think the two bodies must sit down and reconcile their notes. Remember that the Director General came and told us a different story while the Director of Public Health was also telling us a different story just two weeks ago. So these communication gaps I think they have to mend it so that we will take them very serious when they come up with figures about the coronavirus.”
The Public Relations Officer of the KMA, Henritta Afia Konadu Aboagye, had said that the new Delta variant was discovered in the Kumasi metropolis immediately after the Christmas festivities.
“After the festive season, we realised a lot of people were coming in with a lot of cases, but later we realised that people were coming in with the new Delta variant. The Public Health Committee that is helping the Assembly with the outbreak has recorded over 200 cases. This number is too huge for this short period. So we are drawing the attention of the general public not to relax with the protocols so that we are able to curtail the infection rate,” she said.
But barely a month ago, the Director of Public Health at the Ghana Health Service, Dr Asiedu Bekoe, informed the general public that the first case of the new Delta variant has been recorded at the Kotoka International Airport.