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The Director in charge of Health Promotion at the Ghana Health Service (GHS), Dr Dacosta Aboagye, has charged religious bodies to play a leading role in the enforcement and education in the fight against the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in the country.

To this end, he charged the religious bodies in the country to form groups that would lead the education and enforcement of the COVID-19.

Dr Aboagye said this during a stakeholder’s engagement with religious organisations in Accra yesterday.

The stakeholder engagement formed part of the GHS’ ‘Peer-To-Peer Enforcement Strategy’ aimed at strengthening the capacity of stakeholders in the various organisations to improve the public’s understanding of risks associated with COVID-19.

Dr Aboagye said the fight against the disease would be warm when religious organisations that had large following educate their members to observe the COVID-19 protocols.

According to him, it was incumbent on religious leaders to ensure that their members put on face masks before they were allowed to enter their various organisations.

“Religious leaders must impress on their members to wear nose masks even before leaving the house,” he added.

He said the GHS had embarked on the exercise to complement the effort of the government and security agencies to ensure that, the leadership of the various groups, such as transport unions, media, traders, traditional and religious leaders educate their members on the strict adherence of the COVID-19 protocol.

Dr Aboagye assured that the GHS would continue to educate the public and engage stakeholders to ensure that there were zero cases of the virus in the country.

The Deputy Director in charge of the Health Promotion Division at the GHS, Mrs Bridget Anim, in a presentation, said research conducted by the GHS revealed that the practice of handwashing among the citizens had gone down.

“There is low adherence of face masks and social distances contributing to surging in new COVID-19 cases,” she added.

A representative from the Evangelical Presbyterian Church at Laterbiokorshie District, Stephen Coffie, said the exercise would help sensitise religious institutions about the COVID-19 protocol.

He pledged that religious bodies would constantly educate their members to ensure there were zero cases in the country.