The Tamale Teaching Hospital (TTH) has taken delivery of quantities of KN95 nose masks and disposable isolation gowns to protect its frontline health staff as the country battles the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The items valued at $8,000 were donated by the Catholic Relief Services (CRS), an international non-governmental organisation, as part of efforts to keep the frontline health workers at the TTH safe to enable them to continue to provide vital health services to member of the public.

Dr Mohammed Ali, Chief of Party and Technical Lead for Health at CRS, who presented the items on behalf of the Country Representative of the CRS, to the Management of the TTH in Tamale on Thursday, said they were to support the hospital to adequately respond to the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in the country.

Dr Ali said “We are aware that they are the frontline health care providers. So, their safety is very important to the entire citizenry. So, we feel that it is important as an organisation working with communities and providing service across remote and underprivileged areas of the country, we know that almost all the cases that are recorded end up in this hospital, hence providing this personal protective equipment (PPE) provides a sense of safety for health staff to be able to provide the service.”

There has been a surge in the COVID-19 situation in the country with active cases surpassing 5,500, and the TTH, which is one of the major treatment facilities in the country, has had some of its frontline health staff infected with the disease.

Dr Ali said “I must admit that this support has been made possible by some of our partners, who are outside Ghana. The first time we made the same kind of donation was about four months ago when we donated similar PPE to the TTH amounting to $5,000. The current donation is estimated at $8,000. So, in all, we have provided up to $13,000 worth of PPE in support of TTH.”

He added that “In addition to the support that we have given TTH, CRS as an organisation, has invested up to $400,000 supporting 19 of our operational districts training community-based agents to be able to sensitise community members on this pandemic. We have also trained up to 1,171 health care providers on risk communication and community engagement as well as prevention and management of COVID-19 cases.”

He said “We have also donated in cash up to $40,000 to each of the operational districts to be able to support in tracing cases and also ensuring that they get hand washing equipment, hand sanitsers and other safety equipment needed to keep the frontline health workers safe to be able to provide services to the population.”

Some of the areas the CRS is working in the country include Northern, North East, Savannah and Upper East Regions where it is currently implementing the Rural Emergency Health Services and Transport for Systems Development project to amongst others improve maternal and child health outcomes.

Dr Ali spoke about the COVID-19 vaccine saying “CRS is very instrumental working closely with the Manager of the Expanded Programme on Immunisation and Ghana Health Service working on various sub-committees to prepare the country towards receiving this vaccine and deploying it, and working on risk communication to ensure that the myths and misinformation around the COVID-19 vaccine is allayed such that when the vaccine arrives, people will be willing to accept it.”

Dr Kareem Mumuni, Acting Chief Executive Officer of TTH, who received the items, expressed gratitude to CRS for the gesture, saying “It is so timely that we have you as the first organisation to come to our aid as the second wave of infections began.”

Dr Mumuni said “Indeed, we have been battling some cases including staff infections and so we are so grateful for the support, which has come at the right time for us to be able to perform what we are here for; that is to protect ourselves from contracting the disease and prevent others from getting it.”