Dr Patrick Kuma Aboagye, the Director-General of the Ghana Health service (GHS), on Thursday said current data shows that a significant number of the new Coronavirus infections are being recorded at workplaces.

He said the spikes in new cases of infections were from work areas in the mining sector, Oil and Gas companies, some government institutions and some media organisations.

He, therefore, advised the management of all companies and public institutions across the country to strictly observe and enforce the safety measures and hygiene protocols to prevent a further spread of the virus.

Dr Kuma Aboagye, who was giving an update on the country’s COVID-19 status at the Ministry of Information’s press briefing in Accra, said: “We need to take workplace protocols very seriously.”

The enforcement of all the protocols such as social distancing, effective hand washing and sanitising, wearing of face and nose masks, regular cleansing of door knobs, all working surfaces and washrooms, as well as fumigating and disinfecting those premises regularly, were key measures to prevent the spread of the virus in those places, he said.

Again Management must sustain education on the avoidance of handshakes and hugging and encourage people to wear their face masks even within their working premises.

Dr Aboagye said the danger now was that several workers tended to remove those protective gears once they entered into their offices, and start interacting normally with their colleagues, forgetting about the “new normal time in which we are now.”

He said it was the reason why all employers were being advised to provide veronica buckets with regular water supply, soap and hand sanitisers for effective cleansing to help cut the rate of the transmission of infections.

Ghana current has a COVID-19 cumulative case count of 15,472, out of which 11,433 have recovered, leaving 3,947 active cases, while 22 persons are severely ill, and another six in critical conditions. Unfortunately 95 fatalities have been recorded.

Dr Aboagye, however, said most of the deaths were due to late reporting to health facilities for appropriate care, and that being severely ill or in a critical condition did not necessarily lead to death.

“This is because majority of patients have recovered and have been discharged, so people must report early to avoid further complications and fatalities.”

Dr Aboagye advised the public to take personal responsibility of their health and that of others by behaving responsibly and adhering to all the measures, while the Government also played its role to safeguard the citizenry through the provision of quality healthcare and implementing sustainable programmes to mitigate the adverse socio-economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.