Tamale, 14 July, GNA – Media practitioners have been urged to remain considerate in their reportage on issues of COVID-19 to help effectively promote its compliance and adherence to the safety protocols among citizens.
Mr Joel Abekuliya, Risk Communication Coordinator for Health Promotion Division of the Ghana Health Service (GHS), said it was necessary for practitioners to partner the health professionals to put out the right information on the COVID -19 pandemic to increase citizens’ awareness on the disease and how they could prevent its spread.
He made the call during a media capacity building training, in Tamale, to enhance compliance with COVID-19 safety protocols among members of the public.
The event was to strengthen the capacity of media professionals to improve on citizens’ understanding of the risks associated with COVID-19 and how they could continue to adhere to the mitigation measures.
Mr Abekuliya encouraged the media to engage experts and other authorities in the health sector for the right information during their awareness creation on the pandemic to prevent them from giving wrong information to members of the public.
He advised the media to also educate people mostly at risk to understand and adopt protective behaviours during epidemics, pandemics, humanitarian crises and natural disasters.
Mr Abekuliya advised the media to reduce confusion, and also minimize miscommunication and falsehoods in relation to the cause and transmission of the diseases.