Wa, March 31, GNA – The MTN Ghana Foundation has donated more Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) to management of the Upper West Regional Hospital to help protect staff of the facility as they continue with the fight against COVID-19.
The items are 1,000 pieces of face masks, 1,000 pieces of hand gloves, 1,500 pieces of face shields, 20 contactless thermometers, 30 gallons of mentholated spirit and an undisclosed number of coveralls.
The donation is the second that the Foundation has so far made to the Hospital.
During a brief presentation of the PPE at the premises of the facility in Wa on Wednesday, Mr Kofi Owusu, the Upper West Regional Manager of MTN, noted that the continued support to the Hospital by MTN Ghana Foundation was in recognition of the contribution of the facility to the fight against the global pandemic.
“During this pandemic, we have acknowledged that protecting health workers is paramount, yet there is lack of PPE in some of our hospitals and health facilities,” he said.
“Today, I am very pleased to be here on behalf of the MTN Ghana Foundation to make an intervention that is needed to protect health workers during this period,” Mr Owusu noted.
He therefore commended health care workers across the country especially those working in the Upper West Regional Hospital for their dedication in the fight against the coronavirus disease.
“As tough as the circumstances have been, our health workers have been up to the task in the fight against this deadly virus,” he said.
Mr Owusu noted that the MTN Ghana Foundation was making similar donations to 29 other hospitals across the country, adding that the MTN Group recently made a major move in the fight against the virus by donating 25 million dollars to the African Union to procure the vaccines.
“This Partnership will provide seven million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine for health workers across the continent, which will contribute to the vaccination initiative of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC),” he added.
“About 165,000 AstraZeneca vaccines have been received in Ghana and handed over to the Ministry of Health,” he disclosed.
Dr Robert Amesiya, the Medical Director of the Upper West Regional Hospital who received the PPE, thanked the MTN Ghana Foundation for the continued support.
“PPE are in high demand because health workers have to protect themselves, but frequently they run out of stock because of the high demand,” he said and added that they were happy that MTN constantly came in to support them.
He said COVID-19 was still around and urged the public to continue to comply with the recommended protocols to avoid either getting infected or spreading the disease.
When the health workers were well protected, they will be motivated to give off their best and they usually will not run away when patients are brought to the facility even with symptoms that simulate that of COVID-19,” Dr Amesiya said.
He assured MTN that the PPE would be put to good use in order for it to serve the purpose for which they were procured.
GNA