Director-General of the Ghana Health Service, Dr Patrick Aboagye, has said that the service has put in place enhanced measures to ensure that health professionals and other workers who may come into contact with patients of the novel coronavirus in their line of duty are well protected.
The government today, Tuesday, confirmed 25 new cases of Coronavirus in the country.
This brings to total, 52, the number of cases confirmed in the country with two deaths recorded.
Speaking at a press briefing at the Ministry of Information, the Director of the Ghana Health Service indicated that measures have been put in place to protect frontline health workers who are exposed to the virus as they strife to curb the pandemic and to also protect other patients.
“One of the key things is staff protection because aside from this thing that we are dealing with there are also people who were already there. Pregnant women will be there, people with malaria will be there. So, two key things we are looking at first is staff protection and secondly, we are looking to expand our capacity to be able to respond to the challenges. As I mentioned earlier, one of the things we are doing and have advised all health workers and facility managers to do is to ensure triage at the outpatients’ department. So there is a pre-triage where patients are selected to ensure that all respiratory cases are isolated and designated people see them so that we do not only protect them but also protect other patients who have come to the outpatients’ department for treatment,” he said.
The 25 new cases were confirmed among the 1,030 people who are under mandatory quarantine in the country after arriving at the Kotoka International Airport hours to the deadline for the closure of the country’s borders.
The Minister of Health, Kweku Agyeman-Manu who made the announcement on Tuesday, March 24, 2020, said other persons in mandatory quarantine are yet to be tested.
“Out of the 185 test results received, we have 25 of those quarantined tested positive. If we add on to the earlier number of 27, it means we have 52 people testing positive in our country at the moment,” the minister said.
He said the 25 new patients have been handed over to the case management team and are being sent to various isolation centres for treatment.