The Director-General of the World Health Organization, Dr. Tedros Ghebreyesus, is asking is that public events planned for the Christmas festivity be cancelled to protect lives.
Dr. Ghebreyesus says with the Omicron variant spreading across the globe, it’s important public events are cancelled.
Speaking in Geneva, Dr. Tedros Ghebreyesus said countries are recording more cases of the Omicron variant.
He insisted that it is better for events to be canceled than lives being canceled during the festive period.
“The fastest way to do this is for all of us as leaders and individuals to cancel or delay all events, but an event canceled is better than a life canceled. It is better to cancel now and celebrate later than to celebrate now and grieve later.”
“All of us are sick of this pandemic. All of us want to spend time with friends and family. All of us want to get back to normal. The fastest way to do this is for all of us, leaders and individuals, to make the difficult decisions that must be made to protect ourselves and others,” he said.
Meanwhile, the Ghana Health Service, GHS, in a bid to prevent a fourth wave of COVID-19 has revised the existing safety protocols for events during the festive season.
GHS wants event organisers to include health officials in the planning stages of their events.
The Director-General of the GHS, Dr. Patrick Kuma-Aboagye, explained that this is to ensure that there’s strict compliance with the safety protocols.
“The capacity for indoor events must not go beyond 25% of the existing capacity of that facility to ensure social distancing. We all know the indoor area is where the spread is highest.”
“We have also made our teams ready that all those organising events should invite the team to come and assist them in the setting to make sure it is safe, and all other COVID-19 protocols should be observed.”