Schoolchildren without nasal masks will be arrested – Sunyani MCE | Social

Ms. Justina Owusu-Banahene, director general of Sunyani Municipality, said on Thursday that the Assembly’s COVID-19 task force would arrest schoolchildren without a nasal mask.

Assembly officials, she said, would identify and subsequently sanction the parents of these children who do not wear the masks.

She advised parents to provide their children with nasal masks and hand sanitizers to protect them from COVID-19.

Speaking in an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA), Mad Owusu-Banahene, who is also the Minister-designate of the Bono region, said the Assembly will deploy its COVID-19 task force to patrol and enforce protocols in the municipality.

The 52-member working group includes members of the Third Garrison Battalion (3BN), police, firefighters, immigration and prison services.

As the children returned to school, Mad Owusu-Banahene stressed that the Assembly was ready and determined to ensure that all school children were safe both in the school environment and in Sunyani Township.

She said the Assembly, with support from the central government, had already provided basic schools in the municipality with personal protective equipment (PPE), including Veronica buckets, nasal masks and hand sanitizers based on alcohol.

She tasked principals and teachers in elementary schools to ensure that children are protected in schools by making sure that they use PPE appropriately.

She noted that the COVID-19 working group did a great job last year and that it has helped the Assembly contain and prevent the spread of the pandemic.

The task force was, however, withdrawn along the way because the masses adhered to the protocols.

“Since the task force was removed from the street of Sunyani, many people are complacent and do not wear nasal masks, and observe social distancing in public places,” she said, a situation that could trigger the spread of the virus in the municipality.

Mad Owusu-Banahene said the Assembly would also support and relaunch the activities of “mask ambassadors”, a group that defended the use of nasal or face masks.

She therefore appealed to corporate and religious organizations and civil society organizations to support the ambassadors with nasal masks intended for public distribution.

To promote social distancing, she explained, her company had re-embraced the rotation system that would separate traders and women traders in order to reduce congestion at the central market in Nana Bosoma and the main market in Sunyani.

She thanked the Traditional Council of Sunyani and Nana Bosoma Asor NKrawiri II, Supreme Leader of Sunyani, in particular, for supporting the assembly last year.
The move, she noted, helped prevent the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, adding that the council would continue with such assistance.

Mad Owusu-Banahene said government alone cannot take responsibility for the COVID-19 campaign and implored everyone to come and contribute and make sure the masses adhere to health security protocols.