Political rallies not the cause of rising COVID-19 cases - Dr Patrick Kuma-Aboagye
By: Yaw Opoku Amoako
Director General of the Ghana Health Service, Dr Patrick Kuma-Aboagye has debunked the myth that large political rallies currently ongoing are serving as COVID-19 super spreaders.
According to him, there is no evidence to back the claim that rallies are causing the spread of the virus as areas where the rallies have taken place have not recorded a spike in cases.
He says that rallies are normally done in open spaces where there is enough ventilation for everyone instead of closed spaces where ventilation is poor.
The Director General has however called on all political parties to be cautious and advise all its members to wear face mask in order to be safe.
"For the rallies, it's about science and data and there's no evidence that any rally has led to an outbreak but even in all that, if the rallies were causing the outbreaks, the rallies don't only occur in Accra because the larger rallies occur outside Accra and we're not seeing any outbreaks there but that is not to say that we're not being cautious".
"We're still talking to people about the use of masks and we've explained to the parties that they should encourage the use of masks. Because it's an open space, ventilation is okay and the virus doesn't do well under such environment.
"Of course after the event, people will move into small spaces and that changes the dynamics and, so, people must still wear the mask for protection at all places. There are riskier areas…so it's the enclosed areas that we must be more careful about," he concluded.