The Korle Bu Teaching Hospital (KBTH) is on very high alert for COVID-19 following increased spread of the disease among staff of the hospital.
An internal memo issued last week and sighted by the Ghanaian Times indicated that 23 active cases had been confirmed among staff of which 70 percent was hospital acquired and 30 percent through community transmission.
A further breakdown pointed to the fact that 13 of the infected persons were nurses, five, doctors and the remaining five, non-clinical staff.
Of those affected, 20 were fully vaccinated and three others; unvaccinated.
It named departments including the Accident and Emergency Unit, Child Health, Polyclinic, Public Health and the Human Resource as where cases were reported from.
“As healthcare workers, learn to live safely with COVID-19. It is our responsibility to reduce the risk of catching the disease and passing it on to another healthcare worker or family members.”
The statement implored workers to get booster doses to complete vaccination and improve their immunity against the disease while taking seriously practices of wearing a face mask, regularly washing hands with soap and water or alcohol-based hand rub especially after engaging patients.
“Organise meetings in a well-ventilated environment, observe social distancing and if you develop a dry cough, headache or fever, kindly report to the polyclinic or the public health unit,” it urged.
Ghana is currently grappling with three different infectious diseases; COVID-19, Monkeypox and the Influenza A (H3N2) virus.
At a recent public update on the statuses of these diseases, the Director-General of the Ghana Health Service (GHS), Dr Patrick Kuma-Aboagye, said while COVID-19 active casesas of June 6, 2022, stood at 452, 773, cases of H3N2 have been confirmed with five cases also of Monkeypox.
The steady rise in COVID-19 cases according to the DG, were traced largely to workplace and school event outbreaks.
Ninety percent of the active cases were in the Greater Accra region with 18 percent of the number, being among people zero to 15 years.
Nonetheless, about 15.8 million COVID-19 vaccine doses have been administered among the population.
At least 9.9 million people have received a jab of the vaccines, 6.6 fully vaccinated and 837, 290 have received a booster dose of a COVID-19 vaccine.
BY TIMES REPORTER
