Dr Senanu Djokoto, Deputy Volta Regional Director of Health Services, Public Health, has said the non-use of face masks remained a major challenge to efforts at rooting out coronavirus in the Region.

He said the use of facemasks remained minimal, and turned crowded environments such as markets into transmission centres for the virus leading the sharp rise in positive cases in the Volta Region.

Dr Dzokoto who was speaking to the Ghana News Agency (GNA) said with the support of law enforcement agencies most individuals were in constant possession of the masks in the Region, yet few used them as required.

He added that each positive case is expected to infect at least four people, making the use of masks one of the most effective preventive actions in the face of mounting case counts, despite the discomforts.

"I can say that everybody knows about the wearing of nose masks and gradually they are getting to know how to care for the masks and all that. But adherence is the challenge because it does not appear to be very comfortable for people, but with every new thing it takes a while to get used to it, so we continuously have to work on it," the Deputy Director said.

Dr Djokoto said the Health Directorate and all stakeholders were keen on cutting off the spread, and were investing more efforts into compliance in markets and other hotspots in the Region.

He reiterated calls for individual responsibility, saying people were major contributors to the efforts of Government in winning the war against the pandemic.

As of Saturday, June 13, the Region recorded 263 COVID-19 cases, 211 on treatment, 48 recovered and four dead.

The regional capital, Ho, tops the chart with 95 cases.