Tarkwa-Nsuaem: 500 new samples taken for COVID-19 testing.

Five hundred samples have been taken from the Tarkwa Nsuaem Municipal Assembly for COVID-19 testing.

Deputy Health Director of the Western Region in charge of Clinical care, Dr. Atsu Dodor who confirmed the development to Skyy News, explained that the move was not a reaction to the death of the nurse from Ghana Manganese Company Hospital, but a routine measure.

‘‘As of yesterday, close to 500 samples had been taken in relation to this case’’.

‘‘These samples are from contacts of all cases within the Municipality. So you’re looking at hospital staff who came into contact with any of the patients as well anybody who came into close contact with them on or before they tested positive for the virus’’ he stated.

Dr. Dodor also assured Ghanaians that frontline health workers would work assiduously while asking the public to adhere to the recommended health protocols.

‘‘Let me add that from the very moment the deceased was suspected of contracting the virus, we executed all protocols which include isolating the patient, contact tracing and of course the extra care and personal protection that our nurses or doctors adopt in treating all cases.

‘‘We will continue to do to our jobs and we ask the public to do the same as it is the surest way of stopping the virus from spreading’’ he concluded.

On Saturday, the Ghana Manganese Company Hospital confirmed its closure following the death of a nurse who was killed by COVID-19.

As a precautionary measure, all hospital staff had been asked to isolate and wait for mandatory COVID-19 tests.

Authorities in the Municipal Assembly are scaling up efforts to test as many people as possible, in a bid to curb the spread of COVID-19.

So far, 15 persons out of the 52 to have contracted the virus, are from the Tarkwa Nsuaem Municipality.