WHO has donated PPEs to the Ministry of Health as part of efforts to support COVID-19 Outbreak Response in Ghana.  The official handing over was done in a brief ceremony with the participation of the Honourable Deputy Minister for Health, Mr Alex K.K. Abban, the Acting Country Representative for WHO, Dr Neema Kimambo, Acting Chief Director of the Ministry of Health, Dr Martha Gyansa-Lutterodt, Directors of the Ministry of Health, WHO staff and a cross section of the Media.

In a welcome address, Dr Martha Gyansa- Lutterodt indicated that crisis events were always an opportunity for the show of humanness and WHO has always been supportive in during crises in Ghana. She mentioned that the current COVID-19 situation is a national issue and was happy that WHO has found it expedient to make this presentation.

Honourable Alex K.K Abban said that the Government is doing the best it can to provide logistics for the Outbreak Response, but these may not be enough to deal with the situation.  He mentioned that frontline health workers were in need of PPEs; making the WHO presentation very timely.

Honourable Abban also made a passionate appeal to all out there to extend support to his course and make all donations to the Ministries of Health National Security.

“There should be equity in distributing logistics and having a central coordination point is very critical to ensure accountability” he added.

In a brief remark, Dr Kimambo said that WHO was seeing a concerning uptick in COVID-19 cases on the African continent, with over 40 countries reporting cases.  She mentioned that while Africa was still the continent with the lowest number of confirmed cases, the rapid evolution of the epidemic must be a wake-up call for all countries including Ghana.

Dr Kimambo added that WHO had been working with the Ministry of Health and Ghana Health Services; providing technical support for preparedness and response to COVID-19 including for coordination and case management as well support capacity building. She also mentioned that WHO had already donated 300 swabs, 500 RNA extraction and 1000 test kits t Noguchi Memorial Institute for Research (NMIR).

She indicated that this presentation was WHO’s second donation of PPEs to the Ministry of Health and the consignment included:
9000 Surgical Masks, 180 Goggles, 800 Face Shields, 350 N95 masks, 9200 Examination Gloves and 750 Gowns of different sizes.

“Ghana can still change the course of this pandemic. If we continue to detect, test, treat isolate, trace and mobilise our people in the response. I am happy to say that every arm of the government is working together to scale-up critical measures.  I congratulate the Government for this effort” she added.

Dr Kimambo concluded by reiterating the continued support of the UN in Ghana as well as WHO’s   continued support to ensure that Ghana overcomes this outbreak.