COVID-19 a Year On: GMABC to discuss the pathway to Ghana’s recovery

The COVID-19 pandemic hit the World in the early days of 2020, disrupting businesses, world economies and life as we know it.
Ghana’s Ministry of Health confirmed the first two cases of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) on Thursday, March 12, 2020. Authorities announced that the individuals had returned to Ghana from Norway and Turkey.
These two cases initiated the first contact tracing process in Ghana. Of the first two cases reported in Ghana, one case was a senior officer at the Norwegian Embassy in Ghana who had returned from Norway; while the other was a staff member at the United Nations (UN) offices in Ghana who had returned from Turkey.
During the period, the Global Media Alliance Broadcasting Company (GMABC) started the COVID-19 series and held a number of virtual conversations on various topics, predominantly on the virus’ impact on the various sectors of the economy. GMABC had experts from various industries talking about how each sector could survive the pandemic.
The webinar series saw some engagements with Ghanaian Ambassadors and their counterparts across the globe on topics such as; ‘Sixty Years of Ghana-China Relations: The Impact and Way Forward in the New Normal’, Wuhan, 76 days after Lockdown, ‘Agriculture: Africa’s post Covid-19 recovery catalyst?’, and ‘Impact of COVID-19 on the Events and Hospitality Industries’.
Now, it has been a year since the virus hit the world and with everyone adapting to the new normal, GMABC seeks to broaden the conversation to look at how the world is responding to the pandemic and co-existing with it, in relation to the Ghanaian context.
GMABC, the parent company of Happy98.9FM, e.TV Ghana and YFM will dedicate its platforms and selected shows for these discussions, focusing on specific subject areas.
Topics to be looked at include; Communicating the risk of COVID-19, Psycho-social challenges related to COVID-19, The Recovery of the Tourism Industry amid COVID-19, Efficacy of the COVID-19 vaccine and a myriad of others starting on March 11, 2021 on the Happy Morning Show with others subsequently.
Commenting on the on air discussion was the Director of Broadcasting for GMABC, Timothy Karikari who said, “It is the media’s duty to always follow up on news and discussions they start and that is precisely what we are doing with the COVID-19, a year on. With this series, our resource persons will educate our listeners on the various developments of the pandemic and share strategies by which one can cope in these perilous times. The first of this series will come off on March 11, 2020 on the Happy Morning Show with Clinical Psychologist, Dr. Emmanuel Asampong on the topic, “Psychological Challenges Related to COVID-19. Do follow our brands in the coming weeks to benefit from these informative and enlightening conversations”.
He entreated listeners of the brands to join in the discussion and protect themselves and loved ones from contracting the COVID-19 pandemic.