The Director-General of the Ghana Health Service (GHS), Dr Patrick Kuma-Aboagye, has appealed to Ghanaians to continue wearing nose mask, despite the easing of COVID-19 restrictions.

According to him, even though the country was recording lower numbers in terms of new COVID-19 infections, Ghanaians “must not lower their guard, since the disease is still with us.”

Dr Kuma-Aboagye made the call when he appeared at the bi-weekly Minister’s Briefing, organised by the Ministry of Information, in Accra, on Tuesday.

The briefing by the health authorities is the first since the easing of COVID-19 restrictions by the President about four weeks ago.

Dr Kuma-Aboagye explained that, even though the President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, said the use of nose mask was not mandatory, it was important for Ghanaians to continue to wear it in their own interest.

He said to avoid contracting the disease, people who visit or congregate at enclosed or crowded places must wear nose mask.

This, Dr Kuma-Aboagye said was necessary because the disease existed, stressing that “At this point, it is important that we all guard against increasing infections in the country.”

He said the country was currently experiencing low numbers of recorded cases of COVID-19 with daily reported cases of less than 20.

Dr Kuma-Aboagye said 12 regions did not have active cases and there were no severe or critical case nationwide.

He stated that cases among ‘international arrivals’ had seen a significant decline ever since the country’s land borders were opened.

“More than 14 million COVID-19 vaccination doses administered reduced vaccination uptake with reasonable vaccine hesitancy,” Dr Kuma-Aboagye said.

Concerning the country’s COVID-19 situation, he said as of April 23, this year, the total number of confirmed cases were 161,172   with the total tests done at 2,435,606.

In terms of recoveries, Dr Kuma-Aboagye noted that 159,679 had recovered and total deaths was 40.