Member of the National Democratic Congress (NDC’s) coronavirus technical team, Dr. Vida Nyagre Yakong, has called on government to put measures in place to screen all head potters, popularly known as kayayei who have returned to their hometowns after President Akufo-Addo pronounced a lockdown on Accra and Kumasi, starting tomorrow.
According to her, the “Kayayei and Paa o paa workers have the greatest potential of carrying the Coronavirus to their rural hometowns in the Northern and Upper Regions of Ghana”.
These persons, therefore, are to be quarantined at their destinations for 14 days, retested before they are cleared to join their helpless families and communities.
Read the full statement below:
GHANA HEALTH ALERT (GHA)
For immediate press release
March 28, 2020
GOVERNMENT MUST INSTITUTE URGENT MEASURES TO ENSURE THAT “KAYAYEI” AND “PAA O PA” DO NOT SPREAD COVID-19 UPON RETURN
Head porters popularly known as “Kayayo/Kayayei” and “Paa O Pa” are mostly young girls and men who often migrate from deprived communities to the bigger cities to perform menial jobs for a living. The majority of them come from the northern part of Ghana.
Whilst in the bigger cities, mostly Accra and Kumasi seeking for their so-call greener pastures they face a mirage of challenges ranging from lack of access to accommodation, water and sanitation to food. Most of these people live on the streets and are exposed to all manners of abuses and diseases. They are by all standards, a category of the vulnerable groups in the country that need special attention during this period of rapid spread of COVID-19.
His Excellency the President announced yesterday that Accra, Kumasi and other cities will be lockdown in a bid to contain the dreaded Coronavirus pandemic
Following this announcement, all lorry parks in Kumasi, Accra and Obuasi have seen many residents of these cities travelling to their home towns to avoid the effect of the Virus. The GHA notes that no screening is made of such travellers returning to their home towns. Of biggest concern to the GHA is the return of the many many young head porters or Kayayie and young men engaged in Street Hawking and “Paa O Pa” and other menial jobs in these cities.
The GHA is concerned that without any medical screening whatsoever, these returning Kayayei and Paa o paa workers have the greatest potential of carrying the Coronavirus to their rural hometowns in the Northern and Upper Regions of Ghana.
In this regard, GHA calls on the government to ensure that all are properly screened in their originating locations and quarantined at their destination locations for the required 14 days and retested before they are cleared to join their helpless families and communities.
The GHA calls on the government to take the following measures :
1. Screen all persons including the Kayayie and Pao o Pa young men
2. After a thorough medical screening the government must transport them in the State Transport and Metro Mass buses to their destinations.
3. The Municipal Assemblies must put up Emergency Medical Teams to receive the Returning persons from Accra and Kumasi etc.
4. The Regional NaDMO should prepare school classrooms to receive and keep the returnees.
5. The NaDMO must supply them with Blankets, Sanitary Pads Cleaning and other life keeping materials.
6. The District Medical Director should set up District Medical Team to monitor the health of the Returnees, especially the children.
7. The Social Welfare should begin to design Retention Programmes in Vocational and Technical Skills for training post coronavirus pandemic.
This is the time for the government to care for the poor and vulnerables. Let’s treat them as human beings deserving of quality of life and not as mere objects of elections.
GHA remains optimistic that government would respond to the call to support these people and save innocent lives.
(Ghana Health Alert is a Civil Society Organization made up of Medical and Public Health Consultants, Senior Health Personnel, Academics and Researchers with the goal of advocating for improved health and educating Ghanaians on the importance of public health)
Sign
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Dr. Vida Nyagre Yakong (Senior Lecturer, UDS) Executive Secretary, GHA & Member of the NDC’s COVID-19 TECHNICAL TEAM)
