Coronavirus has negatively impacted our operations - Outgoing NHRC director

Outgoing Director of the Navrongo Health Research Centre (NHRC), Dr. Abraham Oduro, has said the emergence of the deadly coronavirus disease has had a bad impact on activities of the Centre which is hub for the conduction of various research works.

Dr. Oduro, who has passed the baton of affairs of the Centre to Dr. Patrick Ansah, said the emergence of the disease has brought a lot of challenges to the Centre, including suffocating the flow of grants for other research works as donors have geared their attention towards eradicating the pandemic.

He said, unlike the normal times when grants could be obtained to enable the Centre undertake other very important research works, the Coronavirus disease era has changed things, posing a lot of challenges to researchers.

Speaking in his overview address during the Centre’s 2020 Annual General Meeting with staff, the former director said, “Now, all these research monies are being directed to COVID to find the vaccines.

Finding money has now become a problem for researchers. So, we must put in mind that it’s not going to be easy for the Centre in the next few years, say 5 or more. With COVID-19, there are going to be a lot of problems”.

The director continued that aside the issue of lack of funding for research projects, the disease has also presented challenges to an important aspect of the Centre which is data gathering. He revealed that the workers of the Centre were unable to go out to find information on projects it is working on due to the outbreak of the disease.

He said the Centre in this time of the COVID-19 is relying heavily on the services of communication technology, but was also faced with challenges as internet services are not reliable and there is also the unavailability of advanced communication equipment.

“In this 21st century and in the era of COVID-19, we still have challenges with internet service and we are unable to have virtual meetings. COVID has changed our social lives and we cannot go out to the field as we used to do to look for information. We also do not have the equipment and human resource and we have to look at making investments in that”.

About the safety of workers, Dr Oduro stated that the Centre initially faced challenges with how to protect staff as they went about their duties.

He however said efforts have made in the procurement of Personal Protective Equipment (PPEs) to ensure their safety. He lamented the lack of support from government for research works and appealed for adequate resources to be allocated to researchers to enhance their work.

Dr Oduro urged the Centre to brace up to be able to function efficiently despite the challenges posed by the pandemic.

“It is not only going to be this year but going to be like this going forward because money is going to be a big problem. We may not be able to do more research work. And like the health director said the DHMT’s and the hospitals all don’t get money from government apart from programs. So, we must take note of that and work hard within our means,” he added.