Ghana has procured over 30,000 medical equipment for coronavirus fight - Health Minister

Health Minister, Kwaku Agyeman Manu has announced that the country is expecting about 30,000 protective equipment to aid in the fight against coronavirus.

According to him, the country has procured these equipment to add up to existing ones.

“We’ve started receiving items that we ourselves have procured… we expect that apart from these items that we are taking, we will take into inventory close to about 30,000 protective equipment,” he told the media.

He made this revelation when he received the country’s share of the Personal Protective Equipment (PPEs) donated to African country's by the Jack Ma Foundation Wednesday morning at the Kotoka International Airport.

The minister noted that the items came in earlier than expected.

“We were expecting these items to arrive on the 27th but through the efforts of the Prime Minister of Ethiopia and Ethiopia airlines we’ve managed to ship in these items earlier than we were expecting them,” he said.

He further expressed the country’s gratitude to the Jack Ma Foundation, Chinese Embassy and Ethiopia airlines for joining forces to ensure that Ghana, as well as other African countries, receive these items early.

Per arrangements between the Prime Minister of Ethiopia, Dr Abiy Ahmed, the Jack Ma Foundation, and Alibaba Foundation, Ethiopian airlines is to help distribute the equipment, consisting 20,000 laboratory diagnostic test kits, 100,000 medical masks, and 1000 protective suits and face shields, to each of the member states of the African Union.

The health minister assured Ghanaians that about 18 companies have been licensed to produce hand sanitisers locally, so the country has stopped importing the product.

He was also appreciative of various donations being received by some philanthropists and corporate organisations in the country

Ghana has so far recorded 52 coronavirus cases with two deaths.

The country has dedicated today, March 25 2030, to fast and pray to God to save the world from this pandemic which has claimed over 10,000 lives around the globe.