The Ghana Health Service (GHS) says it is evaluating why a lot more health workers are testing positive for COVID-19 in the country.
Health workers have consistently complained about inadequate Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) which heightens their risk of infections in their line of duty.
Last week, for instance, the Western Region reportedly had 43 health workers testing positive; while the Eastern and Ashanti Regions have recorded 15 and 30 cases respectively.
The Director-General of the Ghana Health Service, Dr. Patrick Kuma-Aboagye, says although the health workers are categorized as being at high risk, it is possible some may have contracted the disease within their communities.
“Apart from being at high risk of being infected at work, health workers are also part of our community so they could also pick it up just like any other person so we are evaluating all that. We have an insurance package for those that are infected so it is important that we track them. So we are doing further investigations to also look at what is going on. The most important thing is we have some health workers that are affected and that is why the numbers are going up. It’s a cumulative figure that continues to add up. It’s not like these are new cases that have come up. It’s not all the time that they go to isolation or treatment centres to get infected. A case may just pop up and infect the worker,” he remarked.
Case count per region
Ghana’s case count of the novel coronavirus stands at 6,808.
Out of this number, 2,070 have recovered and 32 have passed away.
Regional breakdown:
- Greater Accra Region – 4,836
- Ashanti Region – 1,062
- Central Region – 306
- Western Region – 277
- Eastern Region – 106
- Western North Region – 62
- Volta Region – 47
- Northern Region – 36
- Oti Region – 26
- Upper East Region – 26
- Upper West Region – 21
- North East Region – 2
- Savannah Region – 1
- Bono Region – 1
