The Ghana Registered Nurses and Midwives Association (GRNMA) with the largest cadre of healthcare providers in Ghana, has observed with grave concern the outbreak of the deadly novel Coronavirus (2019-nCoV) with its devastating outcome.
It is worth noting that the virus since the outbreak in Wuhan, China, on 31 December 2019, has killed 213 patients and has found its way into twenty-two (22) different countries leading to the Coronavirus been declared as a Global Health Emergency by the World Health Organization (WHO).
The GRNMA commends the ministry of health and its agencies for designating Tema General and Ridge hospitals as possible treatment centers. However, this is woefully inadequate since the two centers are centered only on the lower belt. We, therefore, call on Government to establish a center in each belt or reactivate the Ebola Centers across the country.
We call on the Ministry of Health and its agencies to provide the necessary logistics and training for all health care workers especially our Nurses and Midwives who serve as frontline healthcare providers in order to prevent any needless fatalities in an outbreak.
We call on all Nurses and Midwives to be on the highest alert to identify any such cases and apply the highest degree of Infection Prevention and Control in handling any suspected cases.
We also call upon the immigration service and port health officials to adopt strategies to ward off or quarantine suspected travelers especially those from countries with reported and confirmed cases.
We call upon the citizenry to remain calm in the face of a possible outbreak in the Sub-Region and even Ghana and wish to state that GRNMA is committed to supporting global, national, and regionally coordinated efforts to identify, manage, contain and prevent the spread of the virus.