Covid-19 Fight: 100-bed Infectious Disease Centre To Operate Soon – Akufo-Addo

President Nana Akufo-Addo has said Ghana’s first-ever private-led 100-bed Infectious Disease Centre will in the coming days be operationalized to help in the country’s fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.

The facility he says will be managed by the Ghana Health Service (GHS).

Nana Akufo-Addo who updated the nation in his 19th COVID-19 address on Sunday, November 8, 2020, indicated that although the rate of hospitalization of infected persons is low, providing healthcare for such individuals remains a priority for the government in dealing with the pandemic.

“In as much as our hospitalization rates are very low, care for the sick and the provision of treatment remain an important aspect of our strategy. To this end, the one hundred-bed Ghana Infectious Diseases Centre, located at the Ga East Hospital, will be opened in the next few days, under the management of the Ghana Health Service”, he hinted.

Also, the President noted that steps have taken to procure the required health commodities to enable clinicians to adequately ensure that persons admitted to the facility receive proper medical attention.

“The provision of adequate medicines, equipment, and personal protective equipment to enable health workers to attend to home-based patients has also been guaranteed”.

Additionally, the government also intends enhancing the measures of tracing, testing and treatment to arrest the new threat of rising Coronavirus infections in the country.

The government plans to limit the spread of the virus by easing public gatherings, enhancing public education and information, and providing relief and support to individuals, families and businesses.

In a bid to enhance public education, the President said he had instructed the release of additional logistics, including vehicles, to the Ghana Health Service in order to help “beef up contact tracing, and the supervision and monitoring of asymptomatic cases being managed from home.”

The President said the government will also employ “the use of technology to augment our contact tracing efforts, as well as the supervision and monitoring of home care cases.”

The Ghana COVID-19 Private Sector Fund launched a crowdfunding initiative to raise money to complete its flagship project, the infectious disease isolation and treatment facility at the Ga East Hospital in Accra.

Work on the facility began in mid-April after President Akufo-Addo used video conferencing facilities to superintend a ceremony to break ground for work to start.

The project has been completed, having drawn financial support from various private and public sector organisations and high net worth individuals.

The Ghana COVID-19 Private Sector Fund was faced with a funding gap of ¢7.1 million but had to cover it through the #10GhanaChallenge.

The Ghana COVID-19 Private Sector Fund plans to build three more of such facilities in Kumasi, Takoradi and Tamale to care and treat for people who contract infectious diseases like cerebrospinal meningitis.

---citinewsroom