Author: Evelyn A. Paintsil
It was all joyous entering into the New Year, the merry making, New Year outings, resolutions, new aspirations, and all to usher in the year 2020. There were a lot of plans to be accomplished in this New Year for almost everyone but out of the blue came a “life-changer” experience, which has put many plans on hold and left us with the fear of uncertainty. Thus, the confirmation of the novel corona virus 2019 (COVID-19).
In December 2019, the corona virus disease emerged in Wuhan, China, with several cases presenting pneumonia. By mid to late January 2020, the disease had spread to other parts of the world including Japan, Thailand, South Korea, Europe and the USA. By March 2020, about 213 countries had been affected by the virus leading to a declaration of a public health emergency by the World Health Organization. On the 12th March, 2020, Ghana recorded its first case of COVID-19 from two individuals returning to Ghana from Norway and Turkey.
COVID-19 has since remained a public health issue with great impact on all health systems globally including the most vulnerable ones such as that of Ghana’s health system. The partial lockdown in Ghana brought some socio-economic hardship on most employees and self-employed persons. The responsiveness of healthcare to the pandemic and increased accessibility has also been affected due to numerous factors such as inadequate health resources, anxiety amongst health workers, fear of contracting the disease, inconsistencies in information about COVID-19 and perspectives to the public.