President Akufo-Addo in his 10th address to the nation, Sunday, revealed that the major cause of Ghana’s death cases in relation to the COVID-19 disease has been hypertension and diabetes.
According to him, patients who have died as a result of COVID-19 had these underlying health conditions.
Speaking in his address he said “in the Ghanaian context, it has been established that the cases of comorbidity, i.e. underlying health conditions, that are associated with almost all the COVID-related deaths, are mainly diabetes and hypertension. The risk factors for these diseases are being overweight, eating refined foods, too much salt and sugar in meals, inadequate physical exercise, excessive alcohol intake, and smoking” whiles encouraging Ghanaians to take measures of physical fitness and healthy eating very serious.
Read: Schools in the country to resume from 15th June with final year students
The president went further called on the National Commission for Civic Education, Ministry for Information and the media to by this intensify education on the measures and protocols surrounding this topic.
“We have learnt many lessons from this pandemic. The most obvious is that we have to fortify urgently our public health system. We have committed to the implementation of ‘Agenda 88’, that is building, within a year, a fully-equipped, functional district hospital for each district that does not have one, and a fully-equipped, functional regional hospital for each of the new regions, together with a new regional hospital for the Western Region, and the rehabilitation of Effia Nkwanta Hospital in Sekondi” the president said whiles maintaining that the healthcare system has nevertheless been overwhelmed by the situation at hand.
Read Also: Ban on some public gatherings eased, takes effect Friday
He reiterated it was time that universal health coverage moved from a rhetoric to becoming a reality.
