I came into this world on 31st December, 2019. I became more dangerous in early January to late March, 2020. Most people in the world became scared of me cos I can infect you easily through micro droplets that you cannot see with your naked eyes. I spread when one infected person talks or coughs or sneezes or blows the nostril without covering the mouth and nostril with tissue or face mask.
Most people were scared of their lives so were health conscious then. The new normal; hand washing and wearing of face mask became part and parcel of our life. Others too were running for Vitamin C, Garlic, Ginger, “Pr3k3se3”, “dawadawa” and others, just to boost our immune system to fight COVID-19. But too soon, we have forgotten how COVID-19 tormented us. We have failed to acknowledge the lessons to adjust our lives. We have returned to our old normal lives. We have neglected the habit of hand washing, wearing of face mask, social distancing and others. We are behaving as if everything is normal just because COVID-19 cases are going down.
We have soon forgotten that COVID-19 has taken more than one million (1,000,000) lives, who might be our brother or our sister or a friend or our father, our mother and/or a cousin. We have soon forgotten COVID-19 has taken the lives of someone we dearly love. In Ghana only, we have lost 320 loved ones who are doctors, nurses, lawyers, politicians, celebrities and others.
We have soon forgotten that COVID-19 was able to lockdown the whole world where we were restricted free movement from places to places. COVID-19 was able to take our democratic right as freedom of movement. These pockets of lockdowns within the world affected the economy, hence policy softening from various governments started but it seemed we have too soon forgotten that.
My fellow Ghanaians as His Excellency, Nana Addo Dankwa Akuffo-Addo, the President of Republic of Ghana always used to say, please, do we want to go back to lockdown as some countries like France, German, South Africa, Canada, Wales are experiencing second wave of COVID-19? Second wave in this context means the cases of COVID-19 are outrageously going higher which calls for alarm, which might be as a result of our neglect of the new normal such as wearing of face mask, social distancing and hand washing.
Please, let us have in mind that only two confirmed cases in Ghana took us to 48,643 confirmed cases now (as at 1st November, 2020). We will never be free and go about our normal activities of daily living without observing the new normal ( wearing of face mask, hand washing and social distancing). The virus is still with us, and has come to stay. COVID-19 is now part of the list of diseases in the world like HIV/AIDS, Hepatitis, Malaria, Typhoid fever, yellow fever and others so we must learn to live with the virus as the Health Minister of Ghana, Hon. Kwaku Agyeman Manu always reiterates. Living with the virus means whatever we are doing, we should have it in our mind that the virus is still around, hence we should observe the new normal ( hand washing, wearing of face mask and social distancing).
We can only relax and go back to our normal life if and only if we get the vaccine for COVID-19 so that everyone can be protected. Till then, we must adopt the new normal life; wearing of face mask, hand washing and social distancing to protect ourselves, our loved ones and the community at large. Never be misled that the virus is gone, if you loose-guard, you will the get virus, and you might not be lucky to survive. My brother, my sister, the virus is real. Ask NaaAshorkor, Jordan Ayewu and others. You will never understand till you get infected.
This discussion has become necessary due to the trends of new confirmed cases in Ghana in recent times. Let take a look at the confirmed cases in Ghana recently. Once upon a time, our new cases went as low as 30 then it started going up. The latest report as at 1st November, 2020 from Ghana Health Service dashboard is 132 new confirmed cases. The implication of this can be said that cases are gradually going up, if we don’t take the new normal very serious, we will get to second lockdown era again. And I hope you and I do not want that era again. Another observation made was that politicians seem not to care about our health, they’re doing rallies without observing the new normal protocols. This may suggest that politicians are not interested in our health but our votes to give them power to rule us. Please, let be health conscious cos health is wealth. Below is the trend analysis of new confirmed cases in Ghana from October to November, 2020 for your study.
Let be guided by this analysis to inform our decision on the new normal (wearing of face mask, hand washing and others). With this, we can make the world a better place for you and me to live, as Michael Jackson once said. Please, never say you are tired of wearing face mask or washing your hands cos the virus can make your life miserable and even kill you which is preventable.
I choose to wear face mask to protect me and you, will you do same for me? I thought you said you love me, if so then kindly choose to also wear the face mask to protect me.
#wecanpreventthe2ndwave.
#Ichoosetowearfacemaskforyousodosameforme.
Credit;
Kwasi Omaro 