Madam Agartha Adra, Tema Education Directorate's School Health Education Programme (SHEP) Coordinator, has advised the public especially pupils to practice proper hand washing as a way to protect themselves against COVID-19 and other communicable diseases.

Madam Agartha speaking with the Ghana News Agency in Tema said it was not enough to hurriedly wash hands without doing it properly, as that forfeits its intended benefit to the populace.

Giving the steps for correct hand washing technique, she said it must be done with soap under running water, saying the hand wash starts with wetting hands with water, followed by applying enough soap to cover all hands surfaces.

She added that after the application of soap, the hands must be rubbed - palm to palm, then back of each hand with palm, of other hand with the fingers interlacing.

The next step is to rub the palm to palm with fingers interlaced, rubbing with back of fingers to opposing palms with fingers interlocked, and then rubbing each thumb clasped in opposite hand using a rotational movement.

She said tips of fingers must also be rubbed in opposite palm in a circular motion adding that rubbing of each wrist with opposite hand must also be done after which rinsing must be done with fresh clean water and hands dried thoroughly with a tissue or by shaking it for air dry.

She therefore urged parents and teachers to intensify their watch on their children not to only wash their hands often, but also use the correct technique as they often touch and pick up things that might contain some germs and bacteria.

Madam Adrah noted that schools had been cautioned against pouring soap into veronica buckets full of water with the excuse of economizing the soap as they claimed the pupils waste the soap.

She explained that when pupils wash their hands with the soapy water it meant proper hand washing had not occurred since they would not be able to rinse off the soap.

She therefore advised school authorities who still want to pour the soap into the veronica bucket to provide an additional bucket with clean water for rinsing which must be properly labelled.