Fear of stigma makes Ghanaians shy away from COVID-19 tests: report

 

The fear of stigma is a key factor that made many Ghanaians shy away from taking COVID-19 tests, a report published here by the Ghana Statistical Service on Wednesday showed.

The report based on data collected in the first two weeks of December last year said 81.8 percent of respondents indicated that “either none or only a few people get tested for COVID-19” in their communities when they showed relevant symptoms.

The most common reason for that was the “stigma around testing positive for COVID-19,” said the report, adding that only 5.9 percent of respondents mentioned the unavailability or distance to the testing facilities in their communities.

The report also showed that the number of people tested in urban areas was slightly higher than that in rural areas.

As for COVID-19’s impact on household incomes, two-thirds of the households said that their incomes had not recovered to pre-pandemic levels, the report showed.

“The most common coping strategies included relying on savings and reducing food consumption,” it added.