President Nana Akufo-Addo has said the Pandemic COVID -19 has challenged Ghana to lessen its dependence on imports and scaled up significantly domestic production and distribution of personal protective equipment to our healthcare workers.
According to him, the evidence is in the provision of four million, four hundred and forty thousand, six hundred and ninety (4,440,690) gloves; three million, five hundred and twenty-four thousand, two hundred and five (3,524,205) nose masks.
He added that sixty-two thousand, one hundred and ninety-four (62,194) goggles; one hundred and nine thousand, eight hundred and twenty-nine (109,829) liters of sanitizers; eighty-five thousand, nine hundred and ninety-five (85,995) head covers; eighty-two thousand, six hundred and fifty-five (82,655) gowns; fifty-three thousand, five hundred and seventeen (53,517) medical scrubs; and forty-three thousand, six hundred and thirty-three (43,633) N-95 face masks.
The president said this in his 10th address to the nation on Sunday, May 31, 2020.
The president said the government is committed to the implementation of ‘Agenda 88’, that is building, within a year, a fully-equipped, functional district hospital for each district that does not have one, and a fully-equipped, functional regional hospital for each of the new regions, together with a new regional hospital for the Western Region, and the rehabilitation of Effia Nkwanta Hospital in Sekondi.
“We have to empower and increase the number of our healthcare professionals across the board. Universal Health Coverage must become a reality for all Ghanaians, not a slogan, for every Ghanaian deserves good health and good healthcare. We need to focus our energies on ensuring access of poor people to decent housing. We can no longer ignore this basic requirement of social justice. We have to make the things we use and grow the foods we eat. We have to come out of this crisis better, stronger, and more united than before. Ghana, free, united, socially just, self-reliant and productive, that is the Ghana we are going to create together after we have defeated this virus.”
Source: Mybrytfmonline/Kofi Atakora
