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The Sunyani East Municipal Security Council (MISEC)is undertaking rigid enforcement exercise in the Municipality to push residents to comply with the Presidential directives on the COVID-19.

President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has directed that all public gatherings such as religious activities, conferences, workshops and funerals be suspended for four weeks, a move to prevent the spread of the COVID-19 in the country.

The MISEC at a meeting on Wednesday said it had received information that some churches and drinking bars in the Municipality were defying the Presidential orders.

The Council said it would from Thursday, March 26, intensify monitoring to apprehend and prosecute offenders.

Madam Justina Owusu-Banahene, the Sunyani Municipal Chief Executive, disclosed when she interacted with Managers of radio stations and some selected Journalists at a meeting in Sunyani to rally the support of the media in controlling the spread of the COVID-19 in the Municipality.

She said the MISEC had formed a taskforce made up of personnel from the Police, Military, Fire and Immigration Services, which would go round the Municipality to enforce the ban.

Mad. Owusu-Banahene indicated that the Presidential directive was taken as a measure to protect the general public and in the supreme interest of the nation and therefore advised residents to comply or face the full rigours of the law.

She emphasised the vital role of the media in the fight against the COVID 19 spread, and appealed to practitioners to support the Assembly in that direction.

Dr. Paulina Appiah, the Sunyani Municipal Director of Health, appealed to the media and the general public to desist from stigmatizing and discriminating against people suspected or infected by the COVID-19.

She said public stigma had the potential to spread the COVID-19, because people who showed symptoms would hide and fail to report to health facilities for fear of stigmatization.

Dr. Appiah explained that if a person was self-quarantined, it did not mean that he or she had the disease, until tested and proved positive and called on the media to help educate and dispel the wrong perception the public had about the COVID-19.

She said the Ghana Health Service and the World Health Organisation were the reliable sources of information on the COVID-19, and advised the media to always endeavour to crosscheck their facts from the two organisations.

Mr. Benjamin Kyere, the Sunyani Municipal Director of the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE) indicated that the COVID-19 was a huge national health burden, and required concerted and decisive efforts to tackle.

He entreated the media to allocate airtime and sensitize their listeners, viewers and readers on the COVID-19 to avert its spread.

“As part of your social responsibility, we are pleading with you to take the lead and champion the advocacy on the COVID-19 to curtail the spread of the disease,” Mr. Kyere added.