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This paper examines the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic on the existing health inequalities disproportionately affecting vulnerable populations. It explores the impact of COVID-19 pandemic response measures to "curb the spread" on informal sector workers in Ghana. In Ghana, like many other developing countries, the informal sector was impacted by a higher risk of exposure to the COVID-19 infection and the slew of pandemic response measures, for example, lockdowns and stay-at-home orders, as well as guidelines around social distancing implemented by their governments. Given the high level of precarity that undergirds work in the informal sector and the intersectional forces that contribute to and maintain their marginality—class, race, ethnicity, gender, religion, and geographic location—this paper creates a space for dialogue about the unintended consequences of pandemic response measures on the livelihood security of informal sector workers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Achieving urban food security before and after COVID-19 lockdown among urban households' in Ghana is key. This paper compares the pre-and post-COVID-19 lockdown food security status of urban dwellers in lockdown cities of the Greater part of Accra in Ghana using the Rasch and ordered logit model. From a sample of 340 respondents, the study found a significant difference in household food security status and predictors of food security. Prior to COVID-19 households were 'High food secure' (36.4%), but post-COVID-19 lockdown made more households 'Very low food secure' (12.35%). To combat post-COVID-19 lockdown food insecurity in urban agriculture is encouraged. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chinese imports replace locally manufactured products in developing countries. The import of consumer goods from China to West Africa is closely linked to commercial travel, and China's border restrictions during the Covid outbreak put a near-halt to such travelling. Furthermore, the pandemic caused a global logistics crisis that disrupted supply chains with production in China. This paper asks whether Ghanaian manufacturers and artisanal producers could take advantage of these disruptions to enhance their competitive position. Did China's border closure provide space for local Ghanaian producers to thrive? We address this question by drawing on data collected among Ghanaian plastic manufacturers and furniture makers, who have faced tough competition from Chinese imports. Our analysis shows that supply chain disruptions from China led to the substitution of certain products previously imported from China, and these effects were partially sustained after the Covid-induced barriers to imports from China were removed. However, the disruptions were also costly for many Ghanaian producers, as they depended on Chinese intermediary products, tools, and other inputs. This illustrates how economic lives in Ghana and China have become so profoundly intertwined that indiscriminate decoupling is neither possible nor desirable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research on vaccines confirms the crucial role media play in framing discourses and mobilizing public support for successful immunization campaigns. What journalists cover on vaccination issues and their diligence in producing stories can influence attitudes to and uptake of vaccines. This paper contributes to emerging discussions on the role of the media in pandemics and in vaccination programs by interrogating the information seeking and verification practices of journalists reporting on COVID-19 vaccines in Ghana. A cross-sectional online survey was conducted among journalists from June to July 2021 through self-administered questionnaires by means of Google forms. The opinions of 300 respondents, randomly drawn from members of the Ghana Journalists' Association, were solicited and a response rate of 73% obtained. Majority of journalists surveyed relied on official health sources for their information on COVID-19 vaccines (61.5%) and were confident the benefits of vaccines outweigh the risks (70%). While journalists relied on a variety of expert sources, social media platforms served as important sources of information also, with respondents stating a preference for Facebook (48.3%), and WhatsApp (44%). Journalists stated they were guided by sound practices such as source credibility and relevance, but betrayed weaknesses in their verification practices with a third of them admitting to sharing unsolicited information from social media. Journalists in Ghana generally display a positive attitude towards COVID-19 vaccines and regularly search for information from official sources to inform their work, thus making them vital allies in overcoming vaccine hesitancy. Laxity in verification practices, however, makes them inadvertent agents of misinformation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the years, Ghana has made notable strides in adopting digital approaches to address societal challenges and meet demands. While the health sector, particularly the disease surveillance structure, has embraced digitization to enhance case detection, reporting, analysis, and information dissemination, critical aspects remain to be addressed. Although the Integrated Disease Surveillance and Response (IDSR) structure has experienced remarkable growth in digitization, certain areas require further attention as was observed during the COVID-19 pandemic. Ghana during the COVID-19 pandemic, recognized the importance of leveraging digital technologies to bolster the public health response. To this end, Ghana implemented various digital surveillance tools to combat the pandemic. These included the 'Surveillance Outbreak Response Management and Analysis System (SORMAS)', the digitalized health declaration form, ArcGIS Survey123, Talkwalker, 'Lightwave Health information Management System' (LHIMS), and the 'District Health Information Management System (DHIMS)'. These digital systems significantly contributed to the country's success in responding to the COVID-19 pandemic. One key area where digital systems have proved invaluable is in the timely production of daily COVID-19 situational updates. This task would have been arduous and delayed if reliant solely on paper-based forms, which hinder efficient reporting to other levels within the health system. By adopting these digital systems, Ghana has been able to overcome such challenges and provide up-to-date information for making informed public health decisions. This paper attempts to provide an extensive description of the digital systems currently employed to enhance Ghana's paper-based disease surveillance system in the context of its response to COVID-19. The article explores the strengths and challenges or limitations associated with these digital systems for responding to outbreaks, offering valuable lessons that can be learned from their implementation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Amidst the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, Ghana is currently grappling with simultaneous outbreaks of Marburg virus disease and human monkeypox virus. The coexistence of these outbreaks emphasizes the imperative for a collaborative and global approach to enhance surveillance and expedite case detection. While Ghana has made efforts to respond to these outbreaks, this paper outlines the lessons learned and proposes recommendations in this regard. It is crucial to intensify response efforts at the local, regional, and national levels to effectively contain the spread of these infectious diseases. Therefore, this paper suggests prioritizing the following recommendations as crucial for assisting Ghana in adequately preparing for future outbreaks and safeguarding global public health: strengthening surveillance system through digitization, rapid and effective response; risk communication and community engagement; healthcare system readiness; and research and collaboration. Also, prioritizing building healthy public policies and developing personal skills of health personnel across the country is key for future outbreak response. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This paper aims to examine landlords' health support systems to tenants to control COVID-19 in selected informal settlement rental housing (ISRH) in Ghana, dwelling on landlords' views. Design/methodology/approach: The paper used the concurrent imbedded mixed-methods approach and grounded the findings in the socio-ecological theory. The authors collected both qualitative and quantitative data from 242 landlords in 13 informal settlements across Ghana using quotas. The authors undertook semi-structured face-to-face and telephone interviews. The authors conducted content and thematic qualitative data analysis and used simple descriptive statistical data analysis. Findings: The paper discovered that tenants had limited knowledge on the transmission of the pandemic, forcing landlords to regulate their building services usage, ventilation and thermal control, entertainment, common areas and rent advancement for tenants to control the pandemic. Also, tenants found it difficult to comply with the rules on ventilation for fear of criminal attacks, while high social connection and interaction among renters and inadequate enforcement caused the non-adherence by renters to social gathering. Again, landlords had difficulty in contract-tracing visitors suspected to be infected with the virus. Originality/value: The use of concurrent and imbedded mixed methods to investigate landlords' viewpoints on their support in health needs of their tenants to regulate COVID-19. The prescriptions from the study provide practical applications to formulate a mix of housing and health policies to formalize the support of landlords to their tenants in ISRH in Ghana. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The African continent has witnessed most health crises including yellow fever, meningitis, cholera, and Ebola. Two recent health crises faced by Ghana have been the Ebola virus and the Covid-19 virus diseases. This paper attempts to compare these two crises to understand what preparedness approaches were used by the government of Ghana during these two crises. Also, the paper attempts to identify what the similarities and differences have been and why these similarities and differences existed in the preparedness towards these crises that happened over different periods and whether Ghana's Covid-19 preparedness was based on lessons from Ebola. Through the policy legacies analytical framework and a review of the literature, the paper argues that Ghana's preparedness shows a lot of similarities from the training of healthcare workers, the health infrastructure introduced, approaches to public engagement, and political decisions made to fight both crises. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bioethics provides various models of fair allocation of scarce health resources like COVID-19 vaccines. Even though these models are grounded in some ethical principles like justice and beneficence, there were severe inequalities in global access to COVID-19 vaccines. In Ghana, about 21.5 million COVID-19-doses have been administered but comprise mainly members of the adult population. As a result, ethical issues related to vaccinating children have been largely ignored in the country. This paper explores some of the ethical implications related to children's exclusion in the initial COVID-19 vaccination programs in Ghana. It provides a general overview of the COVID-19 pandemic in Ghana and how it related to children and discusses the risks to which Ghanaian children were exposed by delaying their COVID-19 vaccination. A guide to facilitating the full rollout of COVID-19 vaccination in Ghana for children has been proposed that indicates that a fair vaccine distribution for children should prioritize children on admission at health facilities, those diagnosed with severe underlying health conditions, and children who could play an instrumental role in promoting vaccine uptake. It concludes that children must not be placed at the peripheries of the COVID-19 vaccination program in Ghana. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study employs the therapeutic landscape theory to explore how online religious services during lockdown restrictions shape experiences of well-being and intergenerational learning. We used qualitative data from in depth interviews and focus groups with older adults and pastors in five churches in Ghana to explore how online religious places are conceptualized as therapeutic landscapes for sustaining wellbeing goals amidst a global pandemic. We identified multiple pathways of meaning through which online religious services shape the lives of people in a faith community to sustain the experience of well-being in a difficult time. In addition, this paper reflects on the broader implications of COVID-19 in shaping a paradigm shift in digital religion and intergenerational learning experiences through a changing religious landscape precipitated by lockdown restrictions that have drastically altered traditional religious places. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understanding the causal influence of financial anxiety on future work commitment with social support and socio-psychological wellbeing as mediators amongst crisis-induced redundant tourism employees remains limited. Using data collected from 547 COVID-19-induced redundant tourism employees, this paper examines the influence of financial anxiety on future work commitment with social support and socio-psychological wellbeing as mediators. The findings reveal that financial anxiety has a negative influence on social support and social and psychological wellbeing. Social support has a negative influence on social wellbeing, while social support has a positive influence on future work commitment. Both social and psychological wellbeing has a negative influence on future work commitment. Meanwhile, the influence of financial anxiety on future work is fully mediated by social support and socio-psychological wellbeing. Insurance uptake and establishment of welfare funds amongst tourism employees can be used to buffer the effects of financial anxiety on future work commitment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Attempts at mitigating COVID-19 pandemic's impact has pushed stakeholders' resolve to incept variegated measures using socially embedded multilevel government structures. Given Ghana's pandemic governance success, this paper reviews government's nuanced and disaggregated roles in galvanizing social support towards developing, implementing and coordinating pandemic measures. By highlighting the diversity of state-society inter-agency relations, the current study unearths varying stakeholder engagements and their imperativeness to pandemic governance, and acknowledges multilevel governance as critical to fighting the pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the wake of the recently emerged COVID-19 pandemic, legislatures were regarded as one of the important government institutions that can help cushion nations against the economic and social disruptions inflicted by the health crises, given the important roles they play in policymaking within political systems. This paper examines the roles played by Ghana's legislative institution in the management of the COVID-19 pandemic. The paper further explores some of the challenges to legislative activities during the height of the pandemic. From a content analysis of a variety of literature drawn from Parliamentary Proceedings, online journal articles, official documents, and news from credible media outlets, we found that Ghana's legislative institution was crucial to the country's management of the pandemic as they played important roles such as passing COVID-19 related laws, financial oversight, and providing a check on Executive actions. The main challenge to Parliamentary activities was the demand for rapid legislation, which weakened Parliamentary oversight and scrutiny functions. The study makes some recommendations to strengthen legislative responses to future pandemics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This paper examines how one group of frontline health workers (nurses) amid coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic perceive the Government of Ghana (GOG)'s decision to ease the lockdown restrictions when cases were increasing. This paper contributes to the literature on Igor Grossman's concept of wise reasoning and its applicability to COVID-19 management decision-making by political leaders. Design/methodology/approach: The paper employed an exploratory qualitative design. The decision to adopt qualitative method is linked to the paucity of research on wise reasoning, political leadership and COVID-19. The paper draws on qualitative online survey with 42 nurses located in Accra Metropolis, Ghana. Findings: The paper demonstrates that a confluence of research participants perceived the government's act of easing the lockdown restrictions to be in bad faith on account of (1) nonrecognition of different perspectives and viewpoints from stakeholders and interest groups; (2) rising number of cases which naturally make the decision to lift the restriction unwise; (3) concerns about the prioritization of peripheral issues over citizens' health and (4) concerns about limited and robust health facilities and their implications. Research limitations/implications: The key claims must be assessed against the limitations of the study. First, the study is an exploratory study and, therefore, not intended for a generalization purpose. Second, the research participants are highly educated, and the responses in this study are skewed toward them. Originality/value: The paper is novel in seeking to explore wise reasoning and political leadership during a global pandemic such as COVID-19. This exploratory study demonstrates that COVID-19, though devastating and causing havoc, presents an opportunity to test Igor Grossmann's wise reasoning framework about decision-making by political leaders. This extends the literature on wise reasoning beyond the discipline of psychology (the fact that all the authors are geographers) and Global North to Global South since the data for this study are gathered in Ghana. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

On 11 March 2020, the World Health Organisation declared COVID‐19 a global pandemic. Subsequently, governments worldwide implemented strict regimes of lockdowns and school closures to contain the transmission of the virus. Ghana's government on 15 March 2020 also announced a lockdown and closure of schools, lasting up till January 2021. Against this backdrop, the paper examined the implications of school closures on child labour in Ghana. Qualitative data for the study were collected between October 2020 to February 2021 in a small rural community in northern Ghana. Findings from 16 semi‐structured interviews with schoolchildren aged 8–13 years show how school closures have meant that children from contexts of poverty: (a) are driven into child labour as they are either forced to accompany their parents to work on farms or sell foodstuff by the roadside; and thus, ultimately (b) engage in no learning during the lockdown period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic devastated countries worldwide, and resulted in a global shutdown. Not all infections are symptomatic and hence the extent of SARS-CoV-2 infection in the community is unknown. The paper presents the dynamics of the SARS-CoV-2 epidemic in the Greater Accra Metropolis, describing the evolution of seroprevalence through time and by age group. Three repeated independent population-based surveys at 6-week intervals were conducted in from November 2020 to July 2021. The global and by age-groups weighted seroprevalences were estimated and the risk factors for SARS-CoV-2 antibody seropositivity were assessed using logistic regression. The overall age-standardized SARS-CoV-2 antibody seroprevalence for both spike and nucleocapsid increased from 13.8% (95% CI 11.9, 16.1) in November 2020 to 39.6% (95% CI 34.8, 44.6) in July 2021. After controlling for gender, marital status, education level, and occupation, the older age group over 40 years had a higher odds of seropositivity than the younger age group (OR 3.0 [95% CI 1.1–8.5]) in the final survey. Pupils or students had 3.3-fold increased odds of seropositivity (OR 3.2 [95% CI 1.1–8.5]) compared to the unemployed. This study reinforces that, SARS-CoV-2 infections have been significantly higher than reported. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China features significantly in the Covid-19 narrative for good and bad reasons. The purpose of this paper is to test, empirically, the assumption that Covid-19 would negatively influence perceptions of China in Ghana, due to its perceived relationship with the pandemic. We characterise Chinese manufactured products as soft power resources and analyse the role they play in addressing the personal needs and interests of Ghanaians and how they affect positive and negative perceptions of China amid the Covid-19 pandemic. We used a mixed research method and collected data from a sample size of 1,020 for analysis. We found that Ghanaians are rational actors who maximise the perceived gains of their actions in pursuit of their objectives. Thus, the self-interest and personal satisfaction Ghanaians gain through China's manufactured products outweigh the negative representation of China in the Covid-19 narrative, shaping a positive attitude in Ghana towards China. We situate the argument within rational choice theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper addresses the discrepancy between model findings and field data obtained and how it is minimized using the binning smoothing techniques: means, medians, and boundaries. Employing both the quantitative and the qualitative methods to examine the complex pattern involved in COVID-19 transmission dynamics reveals model variation and provides a boundary signature for the potential of the disease's future spread across the country. To better understand the main underlying factor responsible for the epidemiology of COVID-19 infection in Ghana, the continuous inflow of foreigners, both with and without the disease, was incorporated into the classical Susceptible-Exposed-Quarantined-Recovered SEIQR model, which revealed the spread of the COVID-19 by these foreigners. Also, the diffusion model provided therein gives a threshold condition for the spatial spread of the COVID-19 infection in Ghana. Following the introduction of a new method for the construction of the Lyapunov function for global stability of the nonlinear system of ODEs was observed, overcoming the problem of guessing for the Lyapunov function. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper addresses the discrepancy between model findings and field data obtained and how it is minimized using the binning smoothing techniques: means, medians, and boundaries. Employing both the quantitative and the qualitative methods to examine the complex pattern involved in COVID-19 transmission dynamics reveals model variation and provides a boundary signature for the potential of the disease's future spread across the country. To better understand the main underlying factor responsible for the epidemiology of COVID-19 infection in Ghana, the continuous inflow of foreigners, both with and without the disease, was incorporated into the classical Susceptible-Exposed-Quarantined-Recovered SEIQR model, which revealed the spread of the COVID-19 by these foreigners. Also, the diffusion model provided therein gives a threshold condition for the spatial spread of the COVID-19 infection in Ghana. Following the introduction of a new method for the construction of the Lyapunov function for global stability of the nonlinear system of ODEs was observed, overcoming the problem of guessing for the Lyapunov function. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper addresses the discrepancy between model findings and field data obtained and how it is minimized using the binning smoothing techniques: means, medians, and boundaries. Employing both the quantitative and the qualitative methods to examine the complex pattern involved in COVID-19 transmission dynamics reveals model variation and provides a boundary signature for the potential of the disease's future spread across the country. To better understand the main underlying factor responsible for the epidemiology of COVID-19 infection in Ghana, the continuous inflow of foreigners, both with and without the disease, was incorporated into the classical Susceptible-Exposed-Quarantined-Recovered SEIQR model, which revealed the spread of the COVID-19 by these foreigners. Also, the diffusion model provided therein gives a threshold condition for the spatial spread of the COVID-19 infection in Ghana. Following the introduction of a new method for the construction of the Lyapunov function for global stability of the nonlinear system of ODEs was observed, overcoming the problem of guessing for the Lyapunov function. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper examines the multi‐tasked role of women in caregiving and career during the COVID‐19 partial lockdown in Ghana. One hundred fifty three mothers with careers within the Accra Metropolis participated in the study through purposive and snow balling sampling methods of non‐probability sampling technique. To observe the COVID‐19 protocols of social distancing, the research instrument was designed using Google forms and distributed to respondents via social media platforms (emails and WhatsApp). The results revealed that caregiving mothers generally reported to work late from home than if there were in the office and were less effective and productive working from home but were assured of job security because they mostly worked in the public sector. Hours used for domestic activities rose steadily during the lockdown period and social support from non‐relatives in caregiving increased. The paper’s finding suggests that mothers working from home are faced with difficult and conflicting roles which puts more pressure on women during the pandemic period. Women who are unable to access social support continue to be stressed and burdened in an attempt to combine family, care giving, and career roles which ultimately affect their overall wellbeing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper addresses the discrepancy between model findings and field data obtained and how it is minimized using the binning smoothing techniques: means, medians, and boundaries. Employing both the quantitative and the qualitative methods to examine the complex pattern involved in COVID-19 transmission dynamics reveals model variation and provides a boundary signature for the potential of the disease's future spread across the country. To better understand the main underlying factor responsible for the epidemiology of COVID-19 infection in Ghana, the continuous inflow of foreigners, both with and without the disease, was incorporated into the classical Susceptible-Exposed-Quarantined-Recovered SEIQR model, which revealed the spread of the COVID-19 by these foreigners. Also, the diffusion model provided therein gives a threshold condition for the spatial spread of the COVID-19 infection in Ghana. Following the introduction of a new method for the construction of the Lyapunov function for global stability of the nonlinear system of ODEs was observed, overcoming the problem of guessing for the Lyapunov function. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports the findings from a microcredit (financial inclusion) scheme that has been operated by a non-governmental organization since 2012 in a local community in Ghana, and sustained through the COVID-19 pandemic. It first examines microfinance, women's empowerment and third-sector organizational dynamics. It then provides an overview of microfinance in Ghana within the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, followed by dissecting the organization's microcredit, training and women's empowerment programmes. The following part documents the findings, with brief concluding thoughts and policy implications appearing in the last section. It is argued here that financial schemes, particularly those operated by third-sector organizations, can play a significant role in helping women in particular to deal with the secondary effects of COVID-19 by providing improved non-financial services and easy access to microfinance at low, sustainable interest rates. These findings have implications for policy formulation and sustainable development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Starting in December 2019 in Wuhan China, the novel coronavirus (COVID 19) disease has reached 216 countries with 6, 140, 934 confirmed cases and 373, 548 deaths as at 2nd June, 2020 globally Ghana, with an estimated population of 31,014,508 has recorded 8, 297 confirmed cases, 2, 986 recoveries and 38 deaths with 5, 273 active cases as at the same date. All but one of the 16 administrative regions have recorded confirmed cases with the highest case numbers in the more urban regions of the country. Considering that one of the highest risk populations in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak is the elderly population, this brief essay examines the state of elderly care in Ghana in relation to this pandemic. The paper reflects on the state of care needs for the elderly, current elderly care systems, inadequacy of data on elderly population and social work practice in Ghana. It also raises questions on the preparedness of current elderly care systems and general social work practice in Ghana amidst COVID 19. The paper recommends professionalization of geriatric care and formalization of community-based care for the elderly in Ghana as the way forward. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The effects of the COVID-19 pandemic have been far reaching across almost every sphere of life. Families, which are the basic units of society, have not been spared the ravages of the pandemic. Changes in family daily routines as a result of COVID-19 can affect spousal relationships, parenting and childcare practices. However, the extent to which the pandemic has affected parenting practices and family relationships in Ghana is not known. The goal of this study was to assess how parenting practices and family relationships have been influenced during the COVID-19 pandemic in Ghana. Data for this paper was drawn from an online questionnaire response from 463 participants in Ghana as a subset analysis from a multi-country study on personal and family coping system with COVID-19 pandemic in the global south. The mean score for pre-COVID-19 relationship with partner (36.86) was higher (p<0.0001) than the mean score for during COVID-19 relationship with partner (35.32) indicating that COVID-19 has had negative influence on relationships. The mean score for pre-COVID-19 parenting (32.78) was higher (p<0.0001) compared to the mean score for during COVID-19 parenting (31.40) indicating negative influence on parenting. We have predicted that participants whose coping levels were "Well" on the average, are likely to be doing well in relationship with partners and parenting practices during the COVID-19 period. The challenging public health containment measures of the COVID-19 pandemic have negatively influenced the relationship between partners and parenting practices in Ghana. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

COVID‐19 has created significant uncertainty and disruption among governments and people across the globe. Policy studies present various theoretical frameworks that allow scholars and practitioners to make sense of these developments in a structured and systematic fashion. In this paper, we combined the collective learning framework with documentary data and process tracing analysis to describe, first, the features of the COVID‐19 collective learning setting in Ghana. Next, we explored the linkages among learning processes, learning products, and COVID‐19 mitigation. We found that diverse policy actors operated at distinct levels of government and performed different functions in managing the pandemic. Furthermore, we confirmed all three phases of learning (acquisition, translation, and dissemination) in Ghana's context. Lastly, policies, such as public gathering management, mandatory mask‐wearing, partial lockdown, and fiscal and tax reliefs enabled the government to mitigate the pandemic's impact on people. We conclude by highlighting the implications of these findings for policy learning scholarship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The outbreak of COVID 19 and other global pandemics readily shows the importance of ethno-cultural channels of communication. However, modern discourses on medical referrals have narrowly focused their attention on the diverse challenges of referral services in biomedical establishments, but have generally ignored the cultural mechanics and religious dynamism in the contemporary operations of ethno-medical referrals in sub-Saharan Africa. Departing from these studies, the present paper underscores the active networks of referrals in African healing shrines that appropriate the diverse resources and expertise of different healing spaces in their treatments of sick clients. Using an ethnographical approach, the paper investigates the mechanics of ethno-medical referrals from the perspectives of more than 250 sick clients in African healing shrines, over 50 practitioners in ethno-medical shrines, several doctors and nurses, and church workers/Christian healers in Nigeria and Ghana respectively. The findings of this research suggest that there are lively networks of referrals between African healing shrines, hospitals, and Christian healing/prayerhouses, which dramatically turned these diverse healing spaces into an animated transborder space of creative negotiation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This paper is focussed on answering the following questions: How are poor families surviving in this era of COVID-19? What is life for children from poor families? What has become of their reality? To understand the realities of poor families and children during COVID-19, specifically in Ghana, this paper aims to analyse how COVID-19 has affected children from poor families in Ghana and how welfare institutions can work to provide rapid help to such families. Design/methodology/approach: COVID-19 is affecting different populations in almost all parts of the world. One group that is likely to experience challenges are children because they have to depend on others for their survival. This study, therefore, provides an expert opinion on the issues that children in Ghana might face because of the global public health pandemic. Nonetheless, this research relied on secondary data from articles, journals, related studies, textbooks and relevant web pages to support the points made in the paper. Findings: COVID-19 has put a lot of undue economic and social pressure on poor families. Due to these pressures, children from such families are likely to suffer a higher risk of child labour and streetism. Furthermore, they may miss out on the social and economic benefits the school system provides such as the free meals provided for public schools by the Government of Ghana under the school feeding programme. Originality/value: Admittedly, there have been numerous studies since the outbreak of C0VID-19 pandemic. However, this paper is the first paper discussing into detail how COVID-19 has affected children from poor families and addresses how state welfare institutions can leverage on the use of efficient management information system to identify and support poor families during and post-COVID-19. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the impacts of COVID-19 on MFI operations and the response measures taken by MFIs in Ghana. Data from interviews shows that MFIs are faced with operational difficulties as a result of the crisis: inability to disburse new loans and collect loan repayments which is leading to increase in portfolios at risk, increased operational costs, and bottlenecks with non-financial service delivery. Reduction in lending and rescheduling of outstanding loan repayments, adoption of flexible working arrangements, and use of digital technologies are key response measures taken by the MFIs although the scale of implementation differed considerably by contextual factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Festivals are important occasions that African societies have used to bring members together to foster unity and forge development of the communities. Traditional leaders also use festival to propitiate the ancestral spirits and deities to help dispel evil in the society. Throughout the year, festivals and durbars are held in various parts of the country for reunions and developmental purposes, and to the strengthen beliefs of the society. Festivals help the community and people to forge a closer bond with their ancestors and to ask for their protection. Festivals are also held in order to purify the whole state so that people can enter the New Year with confidence and hope. This paper, uses newspapers, interviews, major secondary works and articles on the internet as a source of data. It also uses qualitative and phenomenological methods to assess the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the celebration of the Fetu Afahye festival among the people of Cape Coast (Oguaa) in Ghana. The advent of the pandemic in Ghana altered the lives of the people in the traditional society since it led to the cancellation of the celebration of their festivals. The paper also examines how the non-observance of such festivals, especially the Fetu Afahye, impacted the ritual lives of the people. The paper concludes that even though a ban was placed on the celebration of festivals, due to its significance the traditional leaders found a way to perform the rituals associated with them in the face of the pandemic. This was done in order to avoid incurring the wrath of the sacred and to give the members in the community a sense of identity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examined how the COVID-19 pandemic impacted the work of university administrative and professional staff in Ghana. The pandemic has affected higher education institutions (HEIs) throughout the world in the areas of teaching, learning, research and the provision of administrative support services. In this paper, we used survey data and in-depth interview transcripts to describe how a selection of administrative and professional staff from eight public universities in Ghana are affected. The survey targeted members of the Ghana Association of University Administrators (GAUA) which is made up of non-teaching Senior Members of the public universities. We found that the work of university administrators in Ghana was mainly office based with little or no virtual working schedules or platforms. We, therefore, predict a drastic shift from office-based working to blended-working schedules among university administrative and professional staff in the post- COVID-19 era. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 pandemic has heightened and made visible the embodied consequences of water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) inequalities and the relationalities of health in place. This paper combines insights from relational geographies and embodied epidemiology to explore psychosocial concerns among Ghanaian migrants in Canada due to their multiple and simultaneous roles in the WASH space in Ghana, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic. We explored this using narratives from in-depth interviews with 27 participants (16 women and 11 men) residing in Ontario, Canada. The case of Ghana offers insight into how social ties with home communities could provide a safety net during emergencies but could also affect the psychosocial wellbeing of migrants. Results revealed four interrelated psychosocial stressors, including social stressors, financial stressors, stressors related to perceived inequality and stressors related to the fear of infection during WASH access. The paper underscores the urgent need for research to move beyond local health implications of WASH inequalities and begin to prioritize how these social inequalities are embodied at distant locations. • The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the global health interconnectedness • Embodied subjectivities of WASH insecurity span across space and time • Migrants embody multidimensional WASH psychosocial stressors because of their social connections with home • Policy responses must address WASH subjectivities beyond the local [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper contributes to unravelling the perceptions of urban commercial drivers regarding their vulnerability to catching the SARS-CoV-2 virus while at work. It further examines how the perception of vulnerability influences personal use of face masks by drivers, as well as on their insistence on appropriate masking behaviour by other persons on-board public transport. Overcrowding and unsanitary conditions in informal public transport in Africa could facilitate the spread of the corona virus. However, the use of face masks, among other enhanced mitigation measures significantly contain and minimize the spread of the virus. Primary data, obtained through surveys at five major public transport terminals in Accra, was analysed and interpreted using the Health Belief Model as an explanatory framework. Results indicate that most drivers have a high vulnerability perception to Covid-19. It further emerged that older drivers, in particular, consistently wore face masks and insisted on other persons in their commercial vehicles to follow suit. Socio-demographic factors, and the need to ensure one's personal safety and those of loved ones were critical determinants of face mask use among surveyed drivers. The study thus recommends that public awareness campaigns should strategically focus attention on the younger generation of drivers (i.e. 18–39 years) who perceived themselves to be immune to the SARS-CoV-2 virus. Also, the collaborative efforts of state and non-state actors, like the transport operator unions, must be further strengthened if the gains made so far against Covid-19 is to be sustained. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Healthcare rationing during pandemics has been widely discussed in global bioethics literature. However, existing scenarios and analyses have focused on high income countries, except for very few disease areas such as HIV treatment where some analyses related to African countries exist. We argue that the lack of scholastic discourse, and by extension, professional and democratic engagement on the subject constitute an unacceptable ethical omission. Not only have African governments failed to develop robust ethical plans for pandemics, ethicists in this region have been unable to ignite public discourse on rationing. Therefore, we aim to initiate a debate on how rationing health and social goods could be done ethically in Ghana during the current and future pandemics. The paper discusses and critiques some moral considerations (utilitarian, equity, equal worth, urgent need, and the prioritarian principles) for rationing and their relevance in the Ghanaian context. This contribution may facilitate ethical decision-making during the current (COVID-19) pandemic - in Ghana and other African settings where hardly any rationing guidelines exist [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Discrete count time series data with an excessive number of zeros have warranted the development of zero-inflated time series models to incorporate the inflation of zeros and the overdispersion that comes with it. In this paper, we investigated the characteristics of the trend of daily count of COVID-19 deaths in Ghana using zero-inflated models. We envisaged that the trend of COVID-19 deaths per day in Ghana portrays a general increase from the onset of the pandemic in the country to about day 160 after which there is a general decrease onward. We fitted a zero-inflated Poisson autoregressive model and zero-inflated negative binomial autoregressive model to the data in the partial-likelihood framework. The zero-inflated negative binomial autoregressive model outperformed the zero-inflated Poisson autoregressive model. On the other hand, the dynamic zero-inflated Poisson autoregressive model performed better than the dynamic negative binomial autoregressive model. The predicted new death based on the zero-inflated negative binomial autoregressive model indicated that Ghana's COVID-19 death per day will rise sharply few days after 30th November 2020 and drastically fall just as in the observed data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Compound and shared low-income houses in Ghana have economic, social, cultural, and familial advantages. Yet, COVID-19 and its related lockdown and home confinement in two urban cities, Accra and Kumasi, raised questions about the appropriateness of staying in a compound house while observing the COVID-19 protocols. Whereas a few studies have underscored the ineffectiveness of COVID-19 protocols in low-income shared houses, these assume a homogeneity of such households without reflecting on the diversities that exist among and between the different categories of low-income households and the imperative nuanced implications for the spread of infectious diseases. Against this backdrop the paper employed qualitative methodologies of in-depth interviews and non-participant observations to interrogate the experiences of low-income households' utilisation of space as they observed COVID-19 protocols. Drawing respondents from four low-income communities in Accra, the authors examined how traditional family households and non-traditional family households implemented the safety protocols and their implications for shared housing. Issues of sharing inadequate communal facilities and public health concerns as well as lack of access to inadequate water and living spaces impacted the respondents' COVID-19 experience. The study discovered that households' socioeconomic status is directly related to the management of epidemics in urban spaces in Ghana. • Over-crowding and sharing of communal facilities in compound houses raised public health concerns. • A renewed sense of communalism and bonding resulted among households in compound houses during the pandemic. • Existing social networks in houses increased conviviality and psychological resilience for people to deal with lockdown. • Implementing COVID-19 lockdown directives did not take into consideration the socioeconomic status of urban communities. • Efficient planning should be people-centered as local communities become partners and agents of transformation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on the policy responses of Ghana's government with a focus on three areas: health, economic, and social. Ghana had made several policy interventions in these three areas. The study highlighted the adoption of the 3T-approach in health, CAP-20 in economics, and free water and subsidized electricity for citizens as social interventions. The study concludes that the measures undertaken by the Government of Ghana have yielded significant results even though some challenges with delivery mechanisms are identified. The available statistics as of October 25, 2020 on the COVID-19 situation in Ghana further affirm the gains. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Increasing global Internet penetration and technological advancement have stimulated the adoption of online mode of data collection by scholars across different disciplines. Web-based surveys are popular in the Western world, however, their usage among Ghanaian hospitality and tourism scholars is rare despite the several advantages of web-based surveys. This research note compares the demographics of a web-based sample with previous hotel employee studies conducted in Ghana, and in so doing, highlights the advantages and limitations of using a web-based survey in a developing country context. Relative to paper-and-pencil questionnaires, it was less costly using the web-survey to investigate the psychological impact of COVID-19 on hotel employees in Ghana. Furthermore, the web-survey relatively produced quick results as well as reaching respondents in different locations in the country. The demographics of the web-survey appeared comparable to those reported in previous studies conducted in the country. However, employees with college degrees working in star-rated facilities were overly represented in the web-survey sample. Duplicate responses were also observed in the web-survey sample. Web-based surveys provide a viable option for hospitality and tourism research work in Ghana, particularly in the period of COVID-19 and its associated social distancing, lockdowns, and high risk of infection. However, there are potential challenges regarding representativeness, sampling bias and multiple submissions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since March 2020, Ghana's creative arts communities have tracked the complex facets of the COVID-19 pandemic through various art forms. This paper reports a study that analysed selected 'COVID art forms' through arts and health and critical health psychology frameworks. Art forms produced between March and July 2020, and available in the public sphere - traditional media, social media and public spaces - were collated. The data consisted of comedy, cartoons, songs, murals and textile designs. Three key functions emerged from analysis: health promotion (comedy, cartoons, songs); disease prevention (masks); and improving the aesthetics of the healthcare environment (murals). Textile designs performed broader socio-cultural functions of memorialising and political advocacy. Similar to earlier HIV/AIDS and Ebola arts interventions in other African countries, these Ghanaian COVID art forms translated public health information on COVID-19 in ways that connected emotionally, created social awareness and improved public understanding. However, some art forms had limitations: for example, songs that edutained using fear-based strategies or promoting conspiracy theories on the origins and treatment of COVID-19, and state-sponsored visual art that represented public health messaging decoupled from socio-economic barriers to health protection. These were likely to undermine the public health communication goals of behaviour modification. We outline concrete approaches to incorporate creative arts into COVID-19 public health interventions and post-pandemic health systems strengthening in Ghana. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a lower-middle income country, Ghana is noted for having a progressive economy, health system, and family trends. However, COVID-19, with it associated restrictions, has brought changes to various aspects of Ghanaians' lives. In this paper, we review information from government websites, online media websites, social media, academic articles, and anecdotal evidence to track changes brought about by the pandemic. Specifically, we focus on economic well-being, education and schooling, family interaction, mental health and communication in community as well ethnic, cultural, and social class variations. Findings show that the COVID-19 pandemic is changing life for all Ghanaians, notably by reinforcing existing inequalities and highlighting previously known gaps in service, coverage, and access across multiple sectors, including healthcare, business and education. Family patterns are changing for both the nuclear and extended family units. The pandemic has created both challenges and opportunities for parents to engage with their children. Anxiety levels are heightened and psychological services have consequently been made widely available. Education has slowly and unevenly gone virtual. Further, the crisis has generated local innovations to meet the nation's needs during the pandemic. The findings call for national reforms in the production and distribution of goods and services in all sectors as well as empirical work into the long-term effects of the pandemic on Ghanaians. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the world awaits a cure or a vaccine for the deadly Coronavirus disease (COVID-19), prevention etiquette of social distancing is being championed as a mechanism of reducing the rate of infections. This prevention etiquette (social distancing), however, has become an unattainable goal for the majority of slum dwellers and the homeless in Ghana, owing to the absence of standardized housing conditions and basic services that support such a practice. This article sheds light on some strategic actions that must be adopted by government and other groups (Non-Governmental Organisations and Civil Society Organizations inclusive) towards making COVID-19 prevention etiquette of social distancing a reality for the homeless and slum dwellers in Ghana. Among other things, the paper recommends that instant moratorium should be placed on evictions of slum dwellers during the span of the pandemic since their displacement would predispose the evicted to the vulnerability of COVID-19 infection. Additionally, basic human needs such as water and sanitation should be provided for the slum dwellers while dilapidated classrooms and community centres are used to house the homeless and decongest the slums and provide for social distancing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The unexpected outburst of the COVID-19 pandemic brought with it several challenges to many throughout the world, a health crisis that severely affected not only how we live but also work. Whereas all populations are affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, their impacts on vulnerable populations appear greater. However, the relationship and consequences of COVID-19 on vulnerable populations in informal settlements in Ghana remain largely unknown. In this paper, we examine the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic on vulnerable populations in Ghanaian informal settlements. We sample 2697 households from 100 informal settlements across eleven administrative regions of Ghana. The findings indicated an inverse relationship among all the individual domain vulnerability measures, total vulnerability, and COVID-19 exposure. Again, the findings showed that informal settlements populations' exposure to COVID-19 is not limited to their vulnerability although their computed vulnerability indices suggest higher exposure. Based on the findings, it is recommended that COVID-19 support initiatives should not just be limited to persons that might be deemed vulnerable by living in informal settlements. • 2697 households from 100 informal settlements in Ghana responded to the survey. • We observe an inverse relationship among individual domain vulnerability measures, total vulnerability, and COVID-19 exposure. • Exposure to COVID-19 is not limited to vulnerability although computed vulnerability indices suggest higher exposure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Following the successful development of vaccines for COVID-19, attention turned to the problem of vaccine access. However, in contexts where vaccines are available, hesitancy remains a major problem. Informed theoretically by the scholarship on vaccine anxiety, this paper uses a qualitative research approach that included 144 semi-structured interviews to investigate how social and political dynamics shaped people's perspectives in particular environments in Ghana, Cameroon, and Malawi about COVID-19's viral spread and COVID-19 vaccines. Vaccines and the viral spread of COVID-19 are related to political tensions and class-related fractures in particular contexts, and how the public interprets COVID-19's viral spread and engages with vaccination is based on people's social and political environment and their experience. Subjectivities are also rooted in coloniality. Vaccine confidence goes beyond clinical and regulatory authority approvals, and encompasses forces that are economic, social, and political in nature. Thus, an exclusive focus on technical prescriptions for enhancing vaccine uptake will not achieve significant positive results. • Vaccines are related to political tensions and class-related fractures in particular settings. • Political context shapes how people view mandatory vaccination. • The body is a mirror of socio-political context. • Worries about getting COVID-19 vaccines cut across professional and income-related categories. • Distrust in vaccines has national and international dimensions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]