Coronavirus: Keta Municipal Hospital in dire need of PPE

Nearly 200 health workers in the Keta Municipal Hospital in the Volta Region, have launched a desperate plea to President Akufo-Addo to ensure they have adequate protective equipment to deal with the coronavirus crisis.

The medics have also called on the President to ‘protect the lives of the life-savers’ and resolve the ‘unacceptable’ shortage of protective equipment.

In a circular issued on Friday, the hospital said such support was “urgent.”

“These items are needed urgently to augment measures, activities and plans being carried out by the hospital to fight the Coronavirus pandemic,” the circular said.

Items it is requesting include goggles, coverall, hand sanitizers, liquid soap, carbolic soap, face shield, gumboot, scrubs, N95 respirators, surgical face masks among others.

The medical superintendent, Dr. Anthony Ekuban who signed the circular said although it has through its own efforts procured some of the logistics and also received some of them as donations, it is in need of more for its staff.

The Hospital is a major facility serving the Keta community and other major communities nearby.

The outbreak of Coronavirus in Ghana has increased pressure on the facility like the many others across the country especially in dealing with suspected cases.

Two weeks ago, the hospital received a suspected COVID-19 case.

The suspect, a 41-year-old sailor was said to have been at sea for over 30 days in a fishing vessel when he fell sick.

Fishermen who brought the man into town from the sea said some men believed to be Chinese in a fishing vessel pleaded with them [fishermen] to take the suspect together with some quantity of fish to the shore and upon reaching the shore, they should sell the fish and give the money to the suspect so he can go to his hometown.

He was however sent to the hospital and was quarantined. His sample was sent to Accra for testing. The result came back negative for COVID-19.

Ghana-made production of PPE begins

Meanwhile, the government has contracted about four local companies to produce about 3.6 million protective clothing for distribution to health workers across the country.

This is to help address the challenges of shortage of the essential material for the work of health workers and other service providers at the forefront of the COVID-19 fight.