Ms. Akwada (right) helping a market woman on the use of a nose mask
The Bureau of Public Safety is demanding the immediate regulation of the sale of face masks amid their growing importance during the novel coronavirus pandemic.
The government has essentially directed all citizens to wear face masks once they leave their homes.
Speaking to the media, the Executive Director of the Bureau, Nana Yaw Akwada, said: “All sorts of people are trading in nose masks in manners that are most unhygienic. So by the time you even want to comply with that directive, you would rather end up contaminating yourselves.”
“Why should we have people selling nose masks on the market just like that?”
The Ghana Health Service in a statement over the weekend directed the compulsory wearing of face masks in public places.
The use of nose masks for containing the virus has given rise to the production and sale of simple fabric masks.
The President of IMANI Africa, Franklin Cudjoe, has also raised similar concerns.
“As much as I admire the effort in making sure that locals are manufacturing some of these face masks, it is also important that they do it right. I went purchasing two local face masks and I had great difficulty in breathing,” he recounted on Citi Fm’s “The Big Issue” at the weekend.
Currently, the government has made the wearing of face masks mandatory for traders, food vendors, commercial vehicle drivers, commuters on public transports, persons in public and commercial centres, and facilities and buildings, including but not limited to offices, bars, workshops, restaurants, sports arenas, spas, salons, shopping malls, churches, clinics, hospitals, and all other facilities accessible to the public, whether privately or publicly owned.
