The Ghana Registered Nurses and Midwives Association has revealed four of its members have died of the coronavirus disease.
According to the Association, many others are currently battling for their lives in health facilities across the country.
“The death toll has increased to four with the recent one occurring in the Kasenna Nankana District where a number of the nurses have been infected. It is a great worry. Even from December 2020, we saw a rise in the cases among nurses and midwives. It is important to follow COVID-19 protocols.
The group called on the government to provide more Personal Protective Equipment to save frontline health workers.
“The reinstitution of the protocols at the facility is very important and will go a long way to protect health workers. PPEs are very important. We need it. Managers have to see to it that they do stock up these items, so we can have enough to use.”
The group made the disclosure as they raise major concerns over the negligence of the covid-19 safety protocols.
They lamented routine protocols at the health facilities that worked earlier for them have now all been abandoned and called for testing of all members.
“A number of the staff currently infected with the virus are nurses and midwives and there is, therefore, the need to test all staff at the hospital and proper measures put in place to quarantine and treat those infected. Contact tracing should also be initiated to identify those infected for treatment,” the statement read.
The latest update provided by the Ghana Health Service on its website as of January 16 showed an increase in the country’s active cases from 1,924 to 2,174, the number of new infections surged by 366 with 110 patients recovering and 358 deaths.
So far a total of 58,431 confirmed cases, 55,899 patients have recovered while 98 cases are in severe conditions with 36 patients in critical stage.
The Greater Accra and the Ashanti regions continued to be the pivot of the virus in the country with cumulative cases of 33,017 and 11,401 respectively.
