COVID-19 : Douala Residents Gradually Adopt Hand-washing

Despite earlier hesitation, a growing number of residents of Douala in the Littoral Region nowrespect government’s measures to prevent the spread of the Coronavirus or COVID-19. Um Antoine Marie, Coordinator of the Wouri Divisional Branch of the Cameroon Red Cross, says their deployment on March 27, 2020 of volunteers on the field to sensitise on Coronavirus has had a significant positive impact on public behaviour change.Today, an average of 20,000 people wash hands at the 75 sites set up across Douala by the Cameroon   Red   Cross,   CRC.   This   has   been   made   possible   by   the   financial   and   material support of the United Nations Children’s Fund, UNICEF, and the technical backing of the Littoral Regional Delegation of Public Health. At least 620,000 people in the city wash their hands per month at water points managed by Cameroon Red Cross volunteers and First Aid workers, Um adds.  The deployment on March 27, 2020 of an initial batch of 400 volunteers encouraged someinstitutions and businesses in the city to also set up their own hand-washing points before it became government policy, local Red Cross sources note. “The public is becoming more andmore interested in washing hands such that it is common to h...