The Ghana Registered Nurses and Midwives’ Association (GRNMA) has revealed that nine more nurses and midwives have tested positive for Coronavirus.
The GRNMA said the confirmed figure takes the number from 32 to 41 with one death, adding that 288 others have also been quarantined countrywide.
According to the GRNMA, the numbers do not include members at the Covid-19 treatment centers, adding that a lack of personal protective equipment (PPE) and infections from patients for the outbreak contribute to the staggering figure.
Dr. David Tenkorang Twum Said “What is more interesting is that those that have been infected are not at the Covid-19 treatment centers, they are those at the periphery.”
Ghana, like many countries, is grappling with a severe shortage of PPE for its workers, especially at peripheral health facilities.
The Health Minister, Kwaku Agyemang Manu, had said at a press briefing in Accra that the government has selected some companies to locally produce some personal protective kits as announced by President Akufo-Addo.
A total of 3.6 million masks are to be produced by the companies which will be distributed across the country.
However, Dr. Twum wants the government to prioritize the safety of health workers, especially in community health facilities in high-risk areas.
“We believe that the government has the responsibility of providing the necessary logistics in terms of PPE and not focusing on the isolation centers but decentralizing the items to even periphery… But we are talking to our members to practice the universal precautions of infection prevention,” Dr. Tenkorang, speaking on an Accra-based FM station, said.
So far 30 health workers in Ghana’s Ashanti Region have already tested positive for the virus.
Dr. Emmanuel Tenkorang, the Director of Health Services in the Ashanti Region, at a press briefing on Wednesday, however, disclosed that the medics are responding to treatment.
This figure is part of the region’s total case count which currently stands at 886 with seven deaths as of May 20, 2020.
He also said that 25 out of 43 Districts and Municipal Assemblies have reported cases of the virus.
Obuasi still leads with 587 cases in the region, but Dr. Emmanuel Tenkorang told reporters that the situation is under control.
“We have a total of 30 health workers having Covid-19 in the region and all of them are doing very well,” said Dr. Tenkorang said adding: “We have new infections however the good news is that the new infections are going down especially in Obuasi.”
