The Human Resource Directorate of the Ministry of Health has begun the enrollment of all 2017/18 batch of nursing trainees for deployment into various health facilities across the country in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

President Akufo-Addo after one of his televised address to the nation attracted criticism for announcing plans of deploying retired health professionals to fight the deadly virus inspite of the backlog of newly certified trainees who have been left home without jobs for many years.

But Deputy Health Minister Alexander Kodjo Kom Abban in an interview with Blessed Sogah on 'State of the Nation' revealed that the said categories of trained health professionals will be engaged for permanent employment.

“The human resource directorate is quickly making all the moves for the 2017/18 nurses who already graduated and have gone through their rotation to be quickly enrolled, so, in that aspect their employment is already done,” he said.

The minister added that due to the exigencies of the time, some staff integration protocols may be waved for the new recruits.

“So, all the various stages that they have to go through over some lengthy period is going to be shortened so that they can quickly deploy them to assist in this fight,” Mr Abban stated.