The AGA Mal-AngloGold Malaria Control Programme has provided a US$300,000 support package to the Upper West Region to help in the management of the Coronavirus (CODVID-19) pandemic.
The package included furnishing of isolation centres, daily disinfection of some 13 health facilities across the region and periodic disinfection of open surfaces such as door knobs and waiting chairs.
The package also included the procurement and distribution of nose masks to residents as well as the supply of hand washing facilities to key beneficiaries in the region.
Addressing the media at Wa yesterday, Head of the AGA Mal-AngloGold Ashanti Malaria Control Programme, Mr Samuel Asiedu indicated that the support package was the organisation’s contribution to the fight against COVID-19 in the region.
Mr Asiedu gave the address when his outfit donated some medical items to the regional health directorate to commence the furnishing of isolation centres.
The items which formed part of the support package included hospital beds and mattresses, BP apparatus, infrared themometres, patient screens, bedsheets as well as personal protective equipment (PPE).
“We chose Upper West Region for the indoor residual spraying as a way of preventing malaria but we cannot concentrate solely on malaria when CODVID-19 has become a global pandemic. We therefore appealed to our donors to assist us with funds to support the fight”, he said.
Mr Asiedu indicated that his outfit had procured enough disinfectants and had also tasked some of its staff to undertake the periodic and daily disinfection of the health centres.
He also stated that AGA Mal was working together with the Regional Health Directorate to establish a testing centre in the region in order to help test for CODVID-19 cases as well as other infectious diseases.
For his part, the Acting Regional Director for Health, Dr Damien Punguyire described the support as timely, saying some isolation centres were in dire need of equipment to start operations.
He cited for instance the isolation centre at Tumu in the Sissala East Municipality which was set up by the assembly and said it would be furnished with some of the items from the donation so as to start admitting patients.
He commented that the region’s CODVID-19 case count stood at 22 with 12 recoveries and 10 asymptomatic cases who were currently been managed.
Dr Punguyire used the opportunity to debunk rumours that the region was not recoding a lot cases because it was not testing people and said most of the positive cases were identified through enhanced testing.
He appealed to residents to continue to observe the social distancing protocol as stipulated by the Ghana Health Service to halt the spread of the virus.
The donation was followed by the disinfection of the Upper West Regional Hospital, the Wa Municipal Hospital, Wa Urban Health Centre, as well as all municipal and district Hospitals.
FROM LYDIA DARLINGTON FORDJOUR, WA
