COVID-19 fight must not endanger health workers — Adongo
The Member of Parliament for Bolgatanga Central, Mr Isaac Adongo, has entreated the President to take steps to ensure that Ghanaians and frontline health workers do not become worse off regarding the infection rate of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic after the lifting of the partial lockdown on Accra, Kumasi and Kasoa.
He observed that the lifting of the lockdown might have some health implications which could increase the risk of infections among the people, if the right strategies were not formulated to curb the spread of the COVID-19.
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Mr Adongo stated this when he presented a number of items to 42 health facilities in the Bolgatanga Municipality to support them in the fight against the COVID-19.
In less than a month, the MP has made two separate donations totalling about GH¢100,000 to support the fight against the pandemic.
Donation
The donations have included 200 pieces of disposable overalls, 100 pieces of reusable protective overalls, 161 Veronica buckets, 100 receptive bowls, 2,600 pieces of surgical masks, 6,000 pieces of surgical gloves, boxes of soap tablets, 20 four-litre gallons of rubbing alcohol, 115 one-litre gallons of rubbing alcohol, 70 boxes of liquid soap of different sizes, two disinfector spraying machines, and 20 pieces of non-contact infrared thermometers.
The donations, he said, were from his personal resources and support from philanthropists, stressing that “they were not procured from even the MP’s share of the Common Fund”.
Leadership
Mr Adongo said leadership was key in fighting the pandemic, and called for concrete steps to safeguard the health of the citizenry “because lifting of the partial lockdown comes with its own challenges”.
He explained that the country needed to be prepared to fight the pandemic on a daily basis once the lockdown was lifted, else the country’s inadequacies in health infrastructure could be exposed and overwhelmed.
The MP questioned if the country had the capacity to, for instance, test millions of Ghanaians within the shortest possible time and provide isolation centres and quarantine for huge numbers should the need arise, given the various projections made by health experts.
Health director
The Bolgatanga Municipal Director of Health Services, Mr Edmund Nyanwura, noted that the items would be distributed among the 42 public and private health facilities in the area.
He said the gesture by the MP was timely considering the fact that every COVID-19 response team needed most of the items to be able to fight the pandemic.
Mr Nyanwura, therefore, called on the public to continue to observe all the hygiene protocols, including washing of hands with soap under running water and social distancing, saying even after the pandemic eases, those protocols must still be observed in order to contain diseases like cholera.
