There is no shame in testing positive for COVID-19 -Akufo-Addo

Most recovered patients have had to deal with a more deadly virus although they have fully recovered.

Recovered COVID-19 patients struggle with stigmatisation. But to assure them, President Akufo-Addo, in his eleventh address said there is no shame in testing positive.

“Stories of persons who have recovered from this disease and being shunned by their own relatives and communities are a source of worry to me.

“Stigmatisation undermines our efforts to fight it. There is nothing shameful about testing positive. We do not lose our sense of community because of this pandemic,” he stated.

His words of encouragement come on the back of the  Health Minister, Kwaku Agyemang Manu, testing positive for the virus.

He joins the over 11,000 people infected with COVID-19 in the country. The number of recovered patients currently stands at 4,258.

‘Nobody buys from our shop anymore’ – Relative of coronavirus patient reveals stigma

Ever since the country discharged its first set of recovered patients, they have shared harrowing experiences of how relatives, friends and neighbours shun them.

A once-booming business, shops and restaurants of coronavirus recovered patients remain closed as their clients refuse to patronise their wares.

It is for those reasons and others that the government, in April, announced that it would not reveal the locations of its isolation centres.

Mr Agyemang-Manu, in a press briefing, noted that “people were likely to over-react if they were to find out that they now lived close to a detention centre.”

COVID-19 Stigma: Recovered patient relives his journey in quarantine and road to recovery