Coronavirus strikes 15 nurses and midwives in Upper East this month

The Ghana Registered Nurses and Midwifery Association (GRNMA) has indicated that about 840 nurses and midwives as of July last year contracted the coronavirus with 2 deaths.

The number they have said is speedily rising with 4 deaths recorded so far due to inadequate supply of Personal protective equipment (PPE’s at health facilities.

Fifteen of the nurses and midwives were hit by the virus in January 2020 alone, the association added.

The association is therefore urging the government to ensure adequate supply of PPE’s to safeguard frontline health workers as the virus is strongly resurging in the country.

The Public Relations Officer of the Ghana Registered Nurses and Midwives Association, Joseph Krampah who revealed the disturbing news on the Sunrise Morning Show on 3FM noted, the country has a long way to go since the poor conditions that nurses were confronted with whiles helping fight the pandemic are the same things happening in this second wave of the COVID-19.

“As at now we have lost one person at the Wa Memorial Hospital….. The 15 of them are in isolation for treatment because they have been exposed”. He stated.

“We are waiting for the regions to compile and send the full list of nurses who have contracted the virus nationwide. Last year we lost three, and the fourth one was just added on this month and that was on the 18th of this month,” he revealed.

Asked how they got to this point, Joseph Krampah said “We all went to sleep when we thought we had defeated COVID and looking at events this year; the durbars they were holding without facemasks, coupled with the elections that went on, campaign and what, all contributed to the surge we are experiencing now. We are saying every nurse and midwife should protect themselves”.

The President of GRNMA, Perpetual Ofori-Ampofo in another interview with Onua FM Yen Sempa morning show on Wednesday 20 January also called on health workers to consider everyone visiting the health facility as a potential covid-19 patient.

She, however, called on all managers of health facilities to provide enough PPE’s at all times to protect the nurses and the midwives.

“At the peak of the first wave in July 2020, 840 nurses and midwives had been infected and 2 deaths had been recorded” the death toll now stands at 4 with the recent demise of Mr. Solomon Nsor, a senior staff nurse at Wa Memorial Hospital in the Kasena Nankana municipality of the Upper East region”.