Member of Parliament for Wa West Constituency, Joseph Yieleh Chireh has chastised the leadership of Parliament for not being forthcoming about reports on MPs who have tested positive for Covid-19.
Contributing to a discussion on ending stigmatisation at Parliament, the MP said the decision by the Speaker derails efforts to combat stigmatisation against recovered people in the country.
“It is not right [to hide the truth], because as leaders in this country, we must take the first step of ensuring that we don’t stigmatise anybody.
“We ourselves [Parliamentarians] should be bold to come out and say that it is just a disease and encourage those who recover from it and give them our full support,” he said.
Parliament’s Public Affairs Director, Kate Addo on Tuesday, denied reports that two MPs and 13 staff of the House have tested positive for coronavirus.
She claimed the information circulating on social media is false because the test results has not yet been received.
But the Minority Chief Whip, Mubarak Mohammed Muntaka confirmed the claims on Prime Morning Show on Joy Prime TV.
The revelation has caused some level of uncertainty amongst Ghanaians on which report is the truth.
In his recommendation, Mr Yileh Chireh said the Speaker, Prof Mike Oquaye has to reveal the number of people who have tested positive for the virus without giving out their identities.
He however added that, “I do not see any problem with it if you should reveal the identity of the public official.
To the NDC MP, that could be used as a means to clamp down on stigmatisation in the country.
But responding to this request, Professor Oquaye said the House must not be in a haste to disclose the names of people who test positive for Covid-19 to the citizenry.
“Let every lady and gentleman here know that we cannot put into the public domain, that a person is positive,” he stressed.
“It is only for an individual to voluntarily put it in the public realm and we must all learn from it as decent and honourable people.”
– myjoyonline
