WHO report identifies gaps in Ghana’s preparedness plan for Coronavirus

Dr Badu Sarkodie, Director of Public Health at the Ghana Health Service (GHS) said the Ministry of Health is mobilising funds to beef the nation’s preparedness plan to respond to any suspected or possible case of the corona virus.

This he said after the World Health Organisation’s (WHO)’ came out with a Country Readiness checklist’ to assess its capacities to respond to cases of Coronavirus also known as COVID-19, identified gaps in Ghana’s control activities as of February 14, 2020.

A report on the nation’s assessment by the WHO Ghana office indicated that Ghana was challenged with inadequate funding to implement various preparedness activities planned.

The five-page report further stated that Ghana would require additional funding to implement its preparedness activities since the support from the government so far, focused on the provision of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) and other initiatives.

Presently, Ghana needs a sum of GH¢35million to prepare adequately to close the preparedness gap identified during its assessment.

The Ghana Health Service, however, explained that there was a funding gap because the GH¢ 2.8 million allocated for the nation’s preparedness was yet to be released.

As of February 27th, China had reported a total of 78,630 cases of COVID-19 to WHO, including 2,747 deaths,

Outside China, there are now 3,474 cases in 44 countries, and 54 deaths. Nine countries have reported cases for the first time: Brazil, Georgia, Greece, North Macedonia, Norway, Pakistan and Romania, Algeria and Nigeria.

According to the WHO, coronaviruses are a family of viruses that cause illnesses ranging from the common cold to more severe diseases such as severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and the Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS).

These viruses were originally transmitted between animals and people

Signs of infection include fever, cough, shortness of breath and breathing difficulties.

In more severe cases, it can lead to pneumonia, multiple organ failure and possibly, death.

Source: GNA