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Twenty-four (24) communities in the Dormaa East District of the Bono Region have benefited from a COVID-19 public awareness sensitisation and campaign programme.

This would educate citizens about the existence of the disease and cause behavioural and attitudinal change among the populace to check spread and infections.

The programme is aimed at equipping the citizenry with the right information on the outbreak and spread of the pandemic as well as outlining detailed measures, response and management strategies to be deployed to effectively deal with the pandemic at the local level.

The event attended by chief, assembly members, unit committee members, farmers, religious leaders was jointly organised by the Dormaa East District Directorate of National Commission for Civic Education(NCCE) and the Dormaa East District Assembly(DEDA).

Mr Emmanuel Kofi Agyemang, the District Chief Executive of Dormaa East District, in his remarks implored the citizenry to support government's move to curtail the increasing number of cases in the district by strictly complying with all directives to check spread.

He added that the procurement of 62 boxes of hand sanitisers, 5,000 face masks and 50 veronica buckets were in clear demonstration of government's commitment, concern and resolve to assist the district to fight alarming rise in cases of the disease in the area.

The DCE urged stakeholders and opinion leaders in those communities to strictly ensure and monitor the items were used for its intended purpose and not diverted for sale by some unscrupulous members.

Mr Emmanuel Hinneh, the Dormaa East District Director of National Commission for Civic Education, noted that the goals and objectives of the programme were to essentially raise public awareness on the existence of COVID-19, and adherence of government and WHO safety protocols.

"It was to tackle the increasing number of positive cases in the country, district, and effect of stigmatisation and to encourage the citizens to adopt healthy personal hygiene in order to manage the spread of COVID- 19," he added.

He stated that the various topics that were treated included; what is coronavirus, adherence to FDA approved protocols on mask wearing, mode of transmission, signs and symptoms of coronavirus, and the ease of government restrictions.

The rest wer how to prevent its spread, how to manage/prevent stigmatisation, boosting the immune system against coronavirus and compliance to protocols and government directives to control/manage it.