Millennium Promise Alliance, a non-Governmental Organization, has donated 8,000 pieces of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) to the Greater Accra Regional Directorate of the Electorate of the Electoral Commission to assist in preventing voters from contracting the novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) when they go the polling stations to cast their vote.
The gesture was done through the Ghana Health Service.
The Executive Director of Millennium Promise Alliance, Chief Nathaniel Ebo Nsarko, who presented at a short ceremony in Accra on Saturday, said his outfit is mindful of how fast the novel coronavirus could spread in a populated environment and the need to reduce such risk as the country goes to the polls on Monday to elect a President and 275 parliamentarians.
He said it was therefore important to make such a donation, items of which include the Food and Drugs Authority certified KN95 nose masks, surgical nose masks and face shields, to the Greater Accra Regional Directorate of the Electoral Commission.
“As we are heading towards the elections, I believe that the health of the election workers, particularly, the EC and the monitoring team that will be going round and other people that will be coming there, I believe their lives are at risk in terms of if they should break any of the COVID-19 protocols.
“So, Millennium Promise Alliance we launched a campaign to mobilize one million personal protective equipment for Africa. In Ghana we have been able to give out about a hundred twenty thousand PPEs to the frontline health workers. And as a you are going to the frontline now, to do this work, we believe you also need extra protection, and so we have KN95 Nose mask, some face shields all accredited by the FDA and we are presenting 8,000 of them to you now so that you could use them through Health Service and your staff and all election officers so that their staff health and wellbeing will be safeguarded for future sake”, he noted.
He added “We are doing this because we believe that after the elections, they will be going back to their homes and their communities and households. If they should pick up this infection at the polling centers, the community spread will begin again and we don’t want that to happen”.
The Greater Accra Regional Director of the Ghana Health Service, Dr. Charity Sarpong, who received the items before also handing them over to an official from the Greater Accra Regional Directorate of the Electoral Commission, commenting on the gesture warned that if Ghanaians don’t put attention to the COVID-19 safety protocols and observe them as such, there is a tendency that the country will end up with a lot of outbreaks.
She then appealed to all Ghanaians who will be going to the polling stations across the country to exercise their voting rights to pay strict adherence to the COVID-19 safety protocols.
“Please let us make sure that before we get up and get to the polling station, you have your nose mask on, you have your hand sanitizer with you – let us corporate with the EC officials and the health staff as they show us to ensure that we observe that there is proper spacing so that at the end of the day, we do not end up with the infection but rather we continue with the downward trend that we are witnessing”, she noted.
The Greater Accra Regional Director of the Electoral Commission. Kwame Amoah, who received the PPE on behalf of his outfit also commenting on them said “This couldn’t have come at an opportune time like this because we know that we are two days away to the elections and as part of the education to ensure safety for all voters and the staff of the EC who are going to work at the polling stations, the Commission has ensured that they protect themselves against COVID-19 and we are also going to make sure that we deploy these materials as quickly as possible to all the polling stations so that it could be put to the purpose for which it has been given to us. We are grateful to them once again”.
