Anyaman is a coastal community in the Sege Constituency in the Greater Accra Region with a population of over 5,000 people. The main occupation of the indigenes is fishing and fish mongering, while a few engage in crop farming and animal husbandry.
The people of this community are very spiritual, with the majority being Christians and a few traditionalists. As a result, every circumstance connotes spirituality.
The people of Anyaman would first seek spiritual help at prayer camps rather than going to hospitals for medical care. This attitude has exposed the entire community to novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) that is leaving its deadly trail across nations in the world, including Ghana.
This is as one person who was receiving care at a prayer camp has been confirmed dead, and tested positive for the virus by medical officers.
Information gathered by The Chronicle indicated that the deceased was at the prayer camp together with a lot of other sick people and their families, waiting on God for healing.
However, the deceased was pronounced dead at Faith Kope (village) Health Centre, after his illness got worse.
Most residents of this community are alarmed because this issue has spread like bushfire, although Faith Kope Health Centre officers declined disclosing where the case was recorded.
Interestingly, when the health officers visited the said prayer camp to take the temperatures of the others patients receiving healing, most of them allegedly took flight, with the fear that the test would bring about a bad omen.
Thus the test would give way to bad spirits to possess their bodies, hence, their refusal to submit themselves. Most members of the community are surprised, because the deceased had not been mobile for a long while, therefore, cannot understand how he contracted the disease.
It must be noted that Ada East and West were excluded in the three weeks partial lockdown declared by President Akufo-Addo to contain the spread of the virus.
An informant told the paper that people of Ada felt the virus was either not real or far from them, hence, were not observing social distancing and other protocols prescribed by the World Health Organisation (WHO), and being enforced by the Ghana Health Service.
Similarly, Ada is one area where most people live in family homes, thereby making everyone in this community very vulnerable to the disease. Also, most families eat in groups, therefore, the likelihood of one family member infecting others is also high.
When fishermen return from fishing, both the young and old, even from surrounding communities, rush to sea shore in search of fish, paying little attention to social distancing.
One major concern the informant raised was how the Kese market is overcrowded with people falling over each, whether selling or buying, while urging the authorities to check the porous border seashore, because foreigners keep coming to the area.
The post COVID-19 test will give chance to demons to possess our bodies appeared first on The Chronicle Online.
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