COVID-19: Contact Tracers In Ashanti Region Threatens Srike Over Cut In Allowance

Covid-19 contact tracers in the Ashanti Region have laid down their tools over a reduction in their allowances.

The personnel are agitating over the slashing of their daily stipend from 150 Ghana cedis to 70 Ghana cedis.

A spokesperson for the contact tracers, Ibrahim Dauda said they had laid down their tools for about a week now.

“They told us to go and stay at home for one week. Even the number of people who were working have been reduced. We have laid down our tools for one week now – we have not been working.”

Contact tracers’ decision to lay down tools could affect efforts to contain the virus in the Ashanti Region, which currently has the second-highest number of COVID-19 cases in the country.

This strike comes weeks after the President had indicated that the government had set aside an insurance package to cushion health officials at the forefront of Ghana's fight against the novel Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in the country.

President Akufo-Addo had also disclosed that a daily allowance of GHC150 is being paid to the contact tracers helping the Ghana Health Service in tracing and testing people who might have come into contact with some infected persons.

The insurance package was expected to cover about 10,000 health personnel and allied professionals attending to COVID-19 pandemic response.

Ghana's COVID-19 case count currently stands at 10,856 after 498 new cases were confirmed.

This is according to the Ghana Health Service's latest update on Friday morning [June 12, 2020.]

Meanwhile, some ninety-seven (97) persons who contracted the virus have now recovered, raising the recovery count to 3,921.

However, six persons are currently in critical condition and sixteen (16) are also in severe condition.

According to the Ghana Health Service's latest update, a total of 242,218 tests have so far been conducted.

The Greater Accra Region tops the regional list of Covid-19 cases with 6,791 cases, followed by the Ashanti and Western Regions with 1,905 and 874 cases respectively.

— citinewsroom