Institutions step up measures to contain spread of COVID-19
Some public institutions have adhered to the directives by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo to contain the spread of the COVID-19 in the country.
The Manhyia Palace, the Police Administration, the Registrar-General’s Department (RGD), the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH) and the Catholic Hospital at Battor are the latest to announce their preparedness to protect their institutions against the virus.
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So far, there have been 11 confirmed cases of the disease in the country.
Manyhia
In Kumasi, the Manhyia Palace has cancelled all public engagement by the Asantehene, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, until further notice.
"The Palace Museum is temporarily closed and all appointments of His Majesty have also been cancelled," a statement from Manhyia said.
The statement, issued yesterday, said all workers, except those who provided essential services, were to stay at home for the period, while private visitors to the palace would be thoroughly screened and made to wash and sanitise their hands before entry.
Police
The Police Administration has also closed down all training exercises for its recruits and other programmes for its personnel.
Recruits, other than the final passing out squad, have been released to go home until further directives.
All police cells are also to be disinfected to protect people who have been remanded into police custody, while new suspects who are brought in will also be screened before being put in custody.
A statement signed and issued by the Director of Public Affairs, Deputy Superintendent of Police Mrs Sheilla Kessie Abayie-Buckman, added that arrangements had been made for the mounting of ‘Veronica’ buckets with water and soap at all police stations, offices, camps and facilities to encourage regular hand-washing by personnel and visitors to those facilities.
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The Veronica bucket has a spigot at the bottom which enables the washing of hands under running water. It was named after the inventor, Mrs Veronica Bekoe, a biological scientist who worked at the Public Health and Reference Laboratory of the Ghana Health Service from 1972 to 2008.
According to Mrs Abayie-Buckman, the contingency measures would be strictly implemented.
Visits
She said unofficial visits to all offices and police stations would be restricted, and encouraged visitors to rather use the telephone in their dealings with the police.
She gave an assurance that despite the measures put in place, policemen would continue to carry out the duty of maintaining law and order, “including preventing crimes, arresting offenders, investigating criminal cases and attendant actions, unabated”.
Registrar-General’s website
For people who want to register, renew or re-register their businesses or file their annual returns, the RGD said it had provided a website for those purposes.
“We encourage all clients to download the prescribed forms, complete them before making their way to our premises for submission as we try to minimise person-to-person contact in the transactions,” the Head of Public Relations of the RGD, Ms Constance Adomaa Takyi, stated.
She said aside from the provision of hand sanitisers for both staff of the department and clients, “chairs have also been provided for clients outside the front office in order not to have more than 25 people in the office at any given time”.
Komfo Anokye Hospital
The management of (KATH in Kumasi has also placed restrictions on the number of people who can visit patients on admission, reports Kwadwo Baffoe Donkor.
In an interview, the Chief Executive of KATH, Dr Oheneba Owusu-Danso, said all in-patients would be allowed a minimum of two visitors who “will be allowed to see the patients in turns, except under special circumstances to be determined by management”.
He also directed that all in-charges of the various in-patients areas at the hospital “are to register the details of visitors in advance, in consultation with the patients, and allow only such persons into their wards one at a time during the visiting hours”.
Battor Catholic Hospital
Similar restrictions have been put in place at the Catholic Hospital at Battor in the Volta Region.
In addition, all visitors and patients to the hospital will undergo basic screening at the main gate, while a visitor per patient will be allowed during visiting hours.
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For surgeries, only Caesarean section and cancer cases will be attended to. The hospital will, however, provide emergency services, while clinical meetings will be held via Zoom platform.
Eastern Regional Hospital
The Deputy Chief Health Service Administrator of the Eastern Regional Hospital, Mrs Rita Acquah, has called on the public to remain calm and desist from causing fear and panic.
She said the hospital had no intention of preventing anybody from accessing health services but would go strictly by the rules of ensuring that people visiting the hospital washed their hands at the entrance.
Mrs Acquah added that visits to wards in the facility had been restricted to ‘one visitor to one patient’, and that not more than two people would be allowed in at a time.
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“We will also ensure that at any given time there are not more than 25 people in the ward,” she said.