Health News of Saturday, 25 April 2020

Source: Daniel Kaku, Contributor

Coronavirus: DCE donates GHC50,000, items to Ellembelle Health Directorate

Some of the items being displayed Some of the items being displayed

The District Chief Executive (DCE) for Ellembelle in the Western Region, Mr. Kwasi Bonzoh has supported Ellembelle District Health Directorate with GHC50,000 and some preventive items to fight against the spread of the deadly Coronavirus pandemic.

The items donated include; 53 sets of Veronica buckets, 110 Veronica bucket stands, 240 pieces of Sunlight liquid soap, 144 pieces of Jumbo tissue paper, 110 pieces of 500ml hand sanitizer and 12 Non-contact Infrared Thermometers.

The DCE's timely intervention follows an urgent appeal from the Ellembelle District Health Directorate.

This is the second time the DCE has supported the Health Directorate since the outbreak of the deadly Coronavirus pandemic in Ghana on March 12, 2020.

In an interview with GhanaWeb's Western Regional Correspondent Daniel Kaku at Nkroful, the Ellembelle District Health Director, Dr. Augustine Amoako thanked the DCE and the entire Assembly for their timely response to their appeal.

"I must take the opportunity to thank the Honourable DCE and the whole District Assembly who have been very supportive from day one, they move with us, we move together and today given us this amount based on the budget we submitted from our Committees, we very grateful, we look forward for a long term collaboration to improve health in general in Ellembelle District", he acknowledged.

He also rendered sincere gratitude to other partners who have been supported the Health Directorate in different ways to fight against the virus.

"...We want to also render our sincere thanks to other partners who have been supported us, the various companies on the Ellembelle land who have supported us in different ways, we also thank the Traditional Council, we are grateful for their immense support.

He emphasized that the gesture was going to help them to curtail the spread of the deadly Coronavirus pandemic.

"... Our Public Health Emergency Committee, we divided ourselves into various Sub-committees which we based on that we presented budget to the Assembly, the money was given to us to support the fight against the Coronavirus", he disclosed.

He, therefore, promised to render a proper account to the Ellembelle District Assembly as soon as possible.

"We are going to use it in a manner that will help to control the disease if we should get one case, the manner that will help to protect our District as much as possible and render an account to the Assembly".

Dr. Amoako said so far, the District has not recorded any case of Coronavirus and was optimistic that they would not record any case.

He commended the members of the Ellembelle District Public Health Emergency Committee for always embarking on sensitisation programme to educate the residents in the District about the Coronavirus.

He emphasized on the need for the residents to continue to wash their hands with soap under running water frequently and also observe social distancing protocol.

He took the opportunity to appeal to other benevolent organizations to come to their aid by donating some Personal Protective Equipment (PPEs) to the Directorate to be distributed to the various health facilities in his jurisdiction.

He ended by pledging, "We promise the Assembly that we will put this gesture to good use so that our people will be safe as much as possible".

On his part, the District Chief Executive (DCE) for the area, Mr. Kwasi Bonzoh stated that the gesture signifies government's appreciation to the sacrificial task that health professionals are offering to the district in the combat against the deadly Coronavirus pandemic.

He disclosed that the Assembly had put in place so many preventive measures to contain the spread of the disease but bemoaned how some were flouting the orders of observing social distancing protocol.

He, therefore, emphasized that the Coronavirus Task Force of the District would continue to sensitize the residents in the area.

He prayed to God to protect his people including the Frontline Health Workers against the deadly virus.

Mr. Kwasi Bonzoh who has been donating Veronica buckets, sanitizers, nose masks, liquid soaps, tissue papers to all the Communities within the district, pledged to continue to support the district.

He took the opportunity to speak against the stigmatization of the disease and stressed that the disease would be vanished from the world, adding that "let us all keep on praying to God and I believe we will wake up one day to hear this deadly Coronavirus vanished from that because God can do anything at his own time".

Ghana has so far, recorded 1279 confirmed cases with 10 deaths and 137 recoveries.