The Director-General of the Ghana Maritime Authority, Thomas Kofi Alonsi has donated medical materials and Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) to the Bolgatanga Regional Hospital in the Upper East Region to support the fight against COVID-19.
The same support was extended to the Sandema, St. Lucas and Wiaga hospitals in the Builsa North District.
The medical items include; infrared thermometers, hand sanitizers, gloves, veronica buckets, soap, protective jackets and nose masks among others.
Speaking to Citi News in Bolgatanga, Mr. Alonsi said the items will complement government’s efforts to protecting frontline health workers in the fight to prevent and manage the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The donation of these medical materials to health authorities is to ensure that, frontline health workers are equipped in the discharge of their duties to ensure that they are able to perform their duties without fear of getting themselves affected by this pandemic. Again, it is the expectation that the medical supplies will be deployed meaningfully to help in the fight against COVID-19. And as an authority, we will continue to mobilize resources to help other frontline health workers who are assisting in the fight against COVID-19. We shall continue to assist them to ensure that we keep the pandemic away,” he said.
Upper East Regional director of health services, Dr. Winfred Ofosu assured equitable distribution of the donated medical items to needy facilities.
He commended the Ghana Maritime Authority for their swift intervention and further appealed to philanthropist and all other organizations to support the facility with more personal protective equipment.
“We need to prepare and accumulate sufficient PPEs which will protect our staff and patients when they come and now that we won’t know who is carrying the virus, one important thing is for the staff to start and continue to protect themselves. This is because in major health care facilities today, they have very limited quantities of PPEs so, this donation will augment the stock of PPEs and we look forward to other corporate organizations and individuals to support the health sector so that together we can win the fight against COVID-19”.
Medical Director of the Bolgatanga regional hospital, Dr. Samuel Aborah reiterated the urgent need for more PPEs as the facility is faced with woefully inadequate PPEs.
