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Cameroonians are not cooperating with COVID-19 testing: Researcher

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African Economic Research Consortium (AERC) Researcher, Dr Aloysius Mom Njong, says people in Cameroon are not cooperating when it comes to testing for COVID-19.

The Central African country has 21 793 accumulative cases, 20 117 recoveries and 426 deaths.

The first case was confirmed on March 5. Then from March 18, the government imposed restrictive measures ranging from social distancing to closing down borders, businesses, churches and schools.

In June, the number of confirmed cases started rising, but the number of recoveries was rising more than proportionate resulting in government’s decision to lift lockdown measures.

Currently, the number of confirmed cases is dropping and government is dismantling confinement and management centres that were set-up on some football fields across the country.

Njong, who is based in Cameroon says, “Though there are government facilities in all the regions to provide testing at no cost, the population is not very cooperative, people avoid going for testing for fear of being exposed to infected patients and fear of being misdiagnosed and confined. There is a worry where there is a stigma that is being associated with a positive test for the virus and many people tend to avoid health centres where testing is done. I think under all circumstances as we look at these facts testing cannot be effective.”

In the audio below, Njong says he satisfied with the way government is addressing the pandemic:

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