The Ghana Health Service (GHS) says the country risks recording high COVID-19 cases due to disregard for the wearing of face masks.

According to the service, a recent survey conducted revealed that only 14.4% of the population in the Greater Accra Region wears face masks.

At a press conference, Director-General of GHS, Dr. Patrick Kuma-Aboagye, said the campaign to adhere to the wearing of face masks during this period must be intensified else Ghana’s gains in the fight against the disease will be derailed.

“Greater Accra is the one that is driving the pandemic [in Ghana] and so it is extremely important that we reset and go back and start wearing the mask so that as active cases are coming down, it will continue to go down. We started with one case and now 43,000. Where we are now, we need to be very careful. That is our major worry and we need to intensify the campaign [for wearing face masks],” he said.

The wearing of face masks has become mandatory because of the novel coronavirus pandemic.

An earlier survey conducted by the Ghana Health Service in Accra noted that 82 percent of the sampled population possessed face masks and had the intention to use them.

However, out of this number, the survey showed that only 44.3 percent of them use the face mask correctly.