Chinese government hands over medical supplies to Ghana

The Chinese Government on Wednesday, presented its second batch of medical supplies, to the Ministry of Health, to support Ghana in the fight the COVID-19 pandemic.

The supplies were made up of 20,000 N-95 protective face masks, 350,000 surgical masks, 10,000 disposable coverall, 15,000 each of medical googles, and disposable gloves and 3,000 disposable shoe covers.

Mr ZHU Jing, the Charge d’affaires of the Chinese Embassy, handed over the supplies to the Ministry represented by Dr Bernard Okoe-Boye, the Deputy Minister of Health at a short ceremony in Accra.

According to Mr Zhu the Chinese Government was the first to send medical supplies via chartered aircraft to 18 African countries including Ghana, to assist in ensuring the safety of especially frontline healthcare workers at the initial stages of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The subsequent gesture by the Government of China, he said, was a reciprocity of the global solidarity shown the country when it was hard hit by the pandemic at the early stages.

He said China’s situation was improving quickly with no single case of domestic infection for the past one month now, except for the new cases being imported into the country due to incoming flights, and the country had also witnessed improved economy growth by a 3.2 per cent in the second quarter, from its initial fall by 6.8 per cent in the first quarter of the year.

Mr Zhu commended the government of Ghana and its Agencies for working hard to manage the spread of the virus and said the Chinese Government would make the COVID-19 Vaccine that was being developed, readily accessible and affordable to all when they were ready for use, and urged countries to remain in solidarity in fighting the common global enemy.

Dr Okoe-Boye, thanked the benefactors for the donation and the partnership that existed between the two countries and said although Ghana was confident of winning the war against the COVID-19 quickly, it needed strong partnership in ways to protect its citizens from the importation of the virus.

“That is why Ghana insists on a negative PCR test before getting on board a plane, and the subjection of ones’ self to an Antigen test,” to tell the current COVID-19 status of a person and their capability of transmitting the virus to others if tested positive.

According to Dr Okoe-Boye the current number of active cases of 564 persons as at the last update, was inspiring and encouraging and urged Ghanaians to continue to observe all the safety and hygiene protocols including the mandatory wearing of face masks and the social distancing rule, to help sustain the gains made.

The Deputy Health Ministry, however, warned Ghanaians against complacency, saying, the war was not yet over and “COVID-19 is among the few situations where one man’s precaution is not enough, but everyone must be interested in the safety of others, as one person’s recklessness, could ruin all the important things put in place.”

He said the donation by the Chinese Government re-echoed the fact that the war was not over yet, and appeal to the media to the sustain education and advocacy against COVID-19 related stigma and timely reporting of cases to save lives.