Doctors contracting coronavirus from hospitals – GMA

More medical doctors in the Ashanti region are contracting COVID-19 from the hospitals they work in, the Ashanti regional chairman of the Ghana Medical Association has said.

According to Dr Paa Kwasi Baidoo, about 10 per cent of doctors in the Ashanti region have been hit with the virus.

Speaking to Francis Abban on the Morning Starr Thursday, the medical practitioner said the country’s case count for the virus will surge if efficient contact tracing is done.

“Most of the doctors are getting it from the hospitals and overcrowding. Unfortunately in the line of duty, most of us [Doctors] are exposed to it and end up getting it. We have about 650 or less doctors in the Ashanti Region and about 10% of them have contracted the virus. If we are to actually do the contract tracing, the symptomatic ones are going to be high,” he said.

He also bemoaned the skyrocketing prices of protective equipment.

“Just around March, a box of gloves was around GHc20 to GHC30 cedis, now a box of gloves is going for GHC150. At a point, it was going for GHc250”.

He also called on the Ghana Education Service reconsider the decision to put children back to schools as cases of COVID-19 rise.

“Is the exams we are conducting worth the life of our students? you don’t have to have an entire school testing positive before you think it is serious. In Ghana, we think the examination is more important than the life of our students when Nigeria has pulled out of the exams. The loss of that student at KNUST SHS is shameful to a country like Ghana,” he said.

Meanwhile, the Ghana Education Service (GES) has served notice SHS students whose parents have picked them from campuses over COVID-19 fears will be isolated during exams.

According to the Chairman of the GES Council Michael Nsowah, the intention of the planned action is to ensure that the students coming from home do not put their colleagues who stayed on campus at risk.

The comments come after scores of parents trooped to several schools to pick their wards after reports of coronavirus outbreak some schools in the country.

“If we are unable to contain the pandemic in schools and send the students home, are we not endangering the general community? Parents are free to take their children home but when the time comes for exams, they [Students] will be isolated,” he told Starr News.