Contact tracing not abandoned; Community Health Nurses now in charge

Contact tracers of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) have been told by their employer, the Ghana Health Services (GHS) that, their services are no more needed.

Their services will now be rendered by Community Health Nurses who are more familiar with the community in which thy ply the trade and understand the people better.

A deputy Minister of Health, Bernard Okoe-Boye revealed this when he appeared on the floor of Parliament on Monday, July 20, 2020, to answer to some questions relating to the Ministry of Health. His appearance was on behalf of the sector Minister, Kawaka Agyeman Manu.

The move the GHS follows agitations from the contact tracers after laying down their tools a month ago over the slashing of their daily allowance from GH₵150.00 to GH₵75.00.

“The claim that government has failed to pay contact tracers qualifies as an inaccurate expression, composed to create the impression that contact tracing had been abandoned. The Ghana Health Service recruited volunteers who were about 2,000 in number during the three weeks of lock down. After the lock down was lifted, the GHS instructed districts to discontinue their engagement with the contracted contact tracers and revert to the use of community health nurses for the purposes of contact tracing”, he noted.

He further disclosed that government has so far spent over US$34million in combating the coronavirus pandemic.

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