The National Association of Local Authorities of Ghana (NALAG) is calling on health professionals and the security agencies to liaise with various assemblies in the fight against COVID-19.
According to NALAG, frontline health workers such as contact tracers take action within communities without the knowledge of local authorities, leading to non-compliance on the part of community members.
“There have been instances where health personnel have been turned away from the community because they did not engage with relevant stakeholders in the community especially assembly members, traditional leaders and opinion leaders.”
“This is hampering the smooth operation of contact tracing of suspected cases of COVID-19,” Bismark Biasie Nkum, the President of the National Association of Local Authorities of Ghana, noted in a media interaction.
He also called for more education on the virus.
“Stigmatisation has been an issue for the management of the cases at the local level. Many of the confirmed cases who have recovered are not welcomed by the respective communities, this is as a result of the lack of understanding of how the disease spreads and how it can be treated. Those who have recovered are not effectively integrated into the community, they are sent back to their communities without proper social orientation and debriefing.”
Mr. Nkum also called on the government to make stimulus packages available to MMDAs to purchase equipment for COVID-19 awareness purposes.
“Central government should extend the stimulus package to MMDAs since we have observed that internally generated funds or internally generated revenue of the assemblies have dwindled drastically in the face of rising expenditure due to COVID-19 pandemic. The government should consider extra funding for MMDAs to render other social services if there are extra funds.”