Tema, July 15, GNA-The International Maritime Hospital (IMaH), located in Tema, has urged the public to stick to the COVID-19 protocols as there has been a surge in the number of infections.
Dr Barbara Karbo, Emergency Physician at IMaH, who disclosed this to the Ghana News Agency during a forum explained that COVID-19 infections among children had increased
Dr Karbo who is the Head of the COVID team at IMaH said the recent surge in the cases has led to the hospital reopening its COVID ward after a long break.
“Two weeks ago, we had an influx of COVID cases again, so we had to reopen, we have managed about 30 in-patients within the period,” she said.
She said currently, the hospital had realized that there were more kids affected than in previous waves, saying, “now every week we have paediatrics as young as two months with bad COVID infections.”
She said the hospital was still adhering to strict COVID-19 protocols for staff and patients and has continued to embark on a COVID-19 prevention campaign.
She therefore stressed that although it was not compulsory in the country, it might be wise for the public to revisit the wearing of nose masks to subvert the current surge in infections.
Recounting the response of IMaH to the COVID pandemic, Dr Karbo said ahead of the first case of COVID-19 in Ghana, with the help of the management of the Ghana Port and Harbours Authority (GPHA), it set up a COVID ward and COVID Monitoring Team to begin testing for the virus.
“Luckily for us, GPHA was willing to get us the equipment we needed and procured medications that were not in the country at the time, we had a good success rate with COVID because we put in place structures and began testing earlier. So, I can say we tackled COVID at its infancy before it could go out of proportion,” she said.
She disclosed that since the outbreak of COVID in Ghana, IMaH has treated over 1,000 cases of the infection, 500 of them were admitted, and under 20 mortalities were recorded.
She said the expansion on its critical care services, which was rare in Ghana, culminated in its selection as one of the COVID referral centres in the country.
Dr Karbo added that IMaH ensured that regular testing for its staff and patients at the clinic became a culture leading to early detection of infections and timely treatments where needed.
GNA