Bolgatanga, April 23, GNA – Mr Isaac Adongo, the Member of Parliament (MP) for the Bolgatanga Central Constituency has presented 20 none contact thermometers to the Bolgatanga Municipal Health Service to aid in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.
The donation was in fulfilment of a promise he made when he earlier presented several medical and non-medical consumables, launched a media campaign against the disease and sponsored educative jingles on radio stations within the Bolgatanga Municipality.
Mr Adongo presenting the items noted that the Municipal Health Directorate needed more none contact thermometers, and said the gesture was to set the lead for philanthropists and all well-meaning Ghanaians to donate more of “this simple but life saving device to our medical team.”
According to the MP, about 322 contact tracing was being done with five none contact thermometers for a team of 15 health professionals designated to trace contacts of infected COVID-19 patients in the Municipality.
“That should tell you that we are not ready to really do proper contact tracing and I would like to appeal to all my colleagues and the general public to come to the aid of our hardworking medical staff to provide this very basic but life saving device for our medical frontline staff.”
Apart from the thermometers, which are critical equipment in assessing temperature levels of clients and patients at health facilities from a distance without any personal contact, the MP also added 2000 pieces of surgical face masks, 4000 pieces of surgical gloves, 10 boxes of liquid soap, 83 pieces of ‘Veronica Buckets,’ and 100 receptive bowls for the buckets.
Mr Adongo said the ‘Veronica Buckets’ were meant for the COVID-19 Campaign Team in the Municipality for demonstration of proper hand washing procedure as part of their education, and onwards distribution to communities within the Municipality.
“Our frontline workers are still going through their work without proper protection. In our own Municipality, our compatriots who have laid down their lives to fight for us, some are in very critical conditions because we did not protect them enough.”
“It is for this reason that I realised that my first donation cannot be an event, but must be a continuous process until we have been able to defeat the virus.”
The MP commended officials of the GHS in his constituency for their professionalism and urged them not to be discouraged but to continue with their hard work to fight the disease.
Mr Edmund Nyanwura, the Municipal Health Director of the GHS who received the items, thanked the MP for fulfilling his promise, and reiterated that the Directorate was tracing 322 contacts and the numbers were increasing by the day.
He explained that contact tracing was done to identify people who had come into close contact with COVID-19 positive patients and could also test positive to the virus, and said the none contact thermometers were appropriate in such an exercise.
The Director observed that hand washing was not only meant to prevent the spread of the virus, but would also prevent members of the public from contracting other diseases such as cholera once the rains set in.
GNA