The Director-General of the Ghana Health Service (GHS), Patrick Kuma-Aboagye has said measures are underway to track suspected cases of COVID-19 in some Senior High Schools.
These schools include the Mfanstipim School, Prang SHS and Odorgonno SHS, among others.
Dr. Kuma-Aboagye disclosed this at a press conference on Tuesday, July 7, 2020.
“We have people in Ada Secondary whose samples have been taken because we have suspected cases. We have the Pru West and the Prang Secondary School, where we also have one or two cases that we are trying to follow up on contacts and test them. In the Central Region, my current evidence is that we have two cases in Mfanstipim, and one in Mankessim.”
The government deployed 200 personnel, including individuals from the Ghana Education (GES) Service and the GHS to monitor the COVID-19 situation in various Senior High Schools after six students and a teacher of the Accra Girls SHS tested positive for COVID-19.
The GES and GHS in the statement said the personnel have been actively spread out across the country for the task to ensure that the schools do not become hotspots for the spread of the virus.
“A team of 200 personnel, drawn from the Ghana Education Service, Ghana Health Service, the Regional and District Directorates of Education are actively spread out all over the country and are monitoring the situation closely.”
“Further, all health institutions to which senior high schools have been mapped with health facilities to ensure that any suspected cases are promptly dealt with in accordance with the laid down protocols,” the joint statement noted.
Some parents besieged the premises of the Accra Girls SHS yesterday, July 6, 2020, demanding the return of their wards back home after the cases were detected.
The students, also gathered outside their classrooms, chanting: “We’ll go home.”
Police officers were subsequently deployed to the school to prevent the agitated parents from entering the premises of the school.
