If you do propaganda with Covid-19, infection and death rates will expose you – Mahama to Akufo-Addo

Former President John Mahama has said that government’s propaganda in Covid-19 management has been exposed by the spike in infection and deaths rates.

According to him, government’s refusal to be by guided by science and self-seeking interest has led to the spike in the figures.

“Lining up Council of State members, chiefs and student groups at the seat of government to congratulate the president’s handling of the pandemic will not let the virus go away.

“The infections and deaths will ultimately expose you,” Mr Mahama said in his latest social media interaction, Thursday.

The country’s spike in Covid-19 cases has alarmed many including Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) like OccupyGhana.

Currently, four persons infected with Covid-19 are in critical condition and are on ventilators while 14 others are critically ill, the Ghana Health Service (GHS) has said.

Meanwhile, 339 new cases of the coronavirus disease have been confirmed as the country’s total case count gets to 12, 929.

Of these, 4,468 have recovered while 66 have died from complication from the Covid-19.

The pressure group has questioned the figures the Ghana Health Service (GHS) has been sharing with the public particularly the numbers of casualties.

According to the group, some anomalies it has detected in the data cannot be a true reflection of the situation on the ground.

OccupyGhana further argues that, “if the public suspects under reporting etc, there will be a loss of trust in the reporting system and that will have consequences that will influence public behavioural responses.”

“The case count is growing steadily by the day – about 200 to 300 new cases per day. At the last count, we had 7652 confirmed active cases even though that number could be higher (the total number of confirmed cases is 11,964),” the group said.

This, the GHS has denied.

The Director-General of the Service, Dr Patrick Aboagye explained that there are laid down procedures before such updates are made, hence the delays in the update.

Wading into the controversy, the NDC flag bearer said, “This is a sad reflection of the Akufo-Addo administration’s chaotic handling of the Covid-19 situation.”

According to him, he has been briefed by the NDC Covid-19 Technical Team about how isolation and treatment centres are filling up resulting in several patients being asked to go home and self-isolate.

“Some health personnel are also being redeployed from their original units to beef up management of Covid-19 cases.

“This is having an adverse effect on the provision of reliable and quality health care services to other patients coming in with other condition,” he added.