Chairman of the Coalition of Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) in Health, Dr Gabriel Bernaku, has described as very poor the response by the Ghana Health Service and Ministry of Health to the coronavirus disease.
Dr Bernaku said the response by the two state institutions has been very poor.
Speaking on Adom FM’s current affairs show, Burning Issues, Monday, January 27, 2020, Dr Bernaku made his rating on three reasons.
He said public education on the disease is very poor since the government has not initiated any mechanism to educate Ghanaians on the epidemic. This, according to him, will make it difficult for people to know if one contracts the disease.
He also asserted that the government has not done anything at the other entry points of the country to check those who come in.
He said Ghana’s borders with Ivory Coast, Burkina Faso and Togo have not been secured to ensure infested persons do not enter the country with the disease.
Government’s failure to activate surveillance centres to quarantine people who will exhibit symptoms of the disease is the final reason the two institutions have failed.
However, Head of the Disease Surveillance Department of the Ghana Health Service, Dr Franklin Asiedu-Bekoe indicated earlier on the show that, people coming to Ghana are made to fill a health declaration form at the airport to ascertain their proximity to infested persons to inform the next step the department takes.
He said if one’s temperature is not high, he fills the form and leaves whilst those with high temperature are monitored though they are not quarantined.
He revealed the Ridge Hospital has been prepared to take care of cases that would surface in Accra and Tema.
Treatment centres, according to Dr Asiedu-Bekoe, would be set up at places where the disease would be detected to take care of victims.