The Tema West Municipal Health Directorate is asking for support for health workers at Tema Polyclinic, following a confirmed Covid-19 case at the facility.
A Community Nurse who occasionally visits Tema Polyclinic as part of her routine work, tested positive to the disease on Friday and is currently recovering at home.
The nurse, believed to be in her 20s, is the first health worker in the municipality to test positive for Covid-19.
To reduce the rate of infection and spread, the Tema West Municipal Assembly on Saturday disinfected parts of the facility where the nurse is said to have visited on Friday.
Tema West Municipal Health Director, Dr. Mercy Obrempong said necessary steps are being taken to handle the situation.
“There is no need to panic at this point. We are doing everything in our bid to ensure things are back to normal,” she said.
About 300 health staff have been screened, blood samples taken and results expected to be released soon.
The directorate and the hospital are currently using contact tracing to help identify those who might have come in contact with the case.
“Since most of her work is done in the community, the bigger challenge is in the community. Honestly, we are overwhelmed by the numbers and we need help at this point,” she revealed.
“We are frontline workers in this Covid-19 fight but without personal protective equipment such as hand sanitisers, tissues among other things, it’s difficult to win this fight,” Dr. Obrempong said.
The health facility will be resuming full services on Monday.
“There is no need to close down the hospital. We have done the disinfection and it’s safe to begin services tomorrow. Calls to close the facility down are out of place. We will continue to assess it from Monday,” she indicated.
Some health workers are expressing fear as they anxiously wait for results of the blood samples taken but the directorate said there is no cause for alarm.
Ghana has so far recorded 214 coronavirus cases with five deaths as the global figures hit 1.2 million with almost 66,500 deaths.
