Government, will from Tuesday, begin the local production of Personal Protective Equipment (PPEs) as a means to intensify measures aimed at curbing the spread of COVID-19 in Ghana.
President Nana Akufo-Addo said this has become necessary because of the shortage of the already procured PPEs which are essential for the protection of frontline health workers risking their lives every day to battle the virus.
Addressing the nation on Sunday, President Akufo-Addo said the government has placed a high priority on the procurement of PPEs.
He added that the Ministry of Health was spearheading the distribution of the PPEs from the national level to the regional and district levels.
“This, notwithstanding, Government is aware that more needs to be done, especially in the face of the global shortage of PPEs. It is for this reason that Government is actively engaged with local manufacturing companies to assist them in the domestic production of PPEs, and I am encouraged by the response from the Ghanaian private sector. Domestic production of face masks, head covers, surgical scrubs and gowns will commence from Tuesday. For example, three million, six hundred thousand face masks will be produced domestically, with an output of one hundred and fifty thousand (150,000) per day. I am equally impressed with the invention of a solar-powered handwashing sink by Jude Osei from Kumasi, and the ‘COVID-19 prevention electronic bucket’ made by Kelvin Owusu Dapaah and Richard Boateng, both students of Obuasi Senior High and Technical School. Necessity, indeed, is the mother of invention, as the Ghanaian sense of enterprise and innovation is beginning to be felt,” he added.
Nana Akufo-Addo announced that thus far, 350,000 masks, 558,650 examination gloves, 1,000 reusable goggles, 20,000 cover-alls, 7,000 N-95 respirators, 500 waterproof gumboots, 2,000 reusable face shields, 2,000 gallons of hand sanitizers, 10,000 100ml pieces of hand sanitizers, and five 500 shoe covers will soon be dispatched to the various health facilities.
President Akufo-Addo has in the past, expressed hope that Ghana will take advantage of the pandemic to position itself as a self-reliant country and bring to an end the assistance it receives from other foreign countries.
Case count
Nine new COVID-19 cases confirmed in Ghana on Sunday increased the country’s case count to 214.
Six of the cases were confirmed in the Greater Accra Region while the remaining three were recorded in the Ashanti Region.
One of the patients who contracted the disease in the Greater Accra region, a 37-year-old woman, had no travel history, neither did she have any contact with another confirmed case.
In the Ashanti Region, one of the three new patients also had no travel history and had not come into contact with any of the already confirmed cases.
