The Ministry of Education (MoE), in collaboration with Zoomlion Ghana Limited (ZGL), has begun the second phase of disinfection of all tertiary institutions in the country.

It followed President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo’s directive for tertiary institutions to reopen next week for continuing students.

The nationwide exercise, which started simultaneously in five regions last Friday, covered Greater Accra, Central, Volta, Northern, Western and Ashanti.

Containing COVID-19

The exercise covers polytechnics, universities, health facilities, in addition to all public and private tertiary institutions, and forms part of the central government’s continuous measures at containing the spread of the COVID-19.

Final-year students of tertiary institutions completed the academic year by writing their final examinations on Friday, and that facilitated the exercise.

Day one

In the Greater Accra Region, tertiary institutions that were disinfected on the first day of the exercise included the Accra Technical University, the West End University, the Dominion University, the Islamic University, and the Kings University College.

Open spaces of those institutions were disinfected in addition to lecture halls, offices and other facilities.

Numbers

Addressing the media during the exercise, the Greater Accra Regional Manager of ZGL, Mr Ernest Morgan Acquah, disclosed that his outfit was expected to disinfect about 86 tertiary institutions in the country.

According to him, the national exercise would be completed before tomorrow (Sunday).

Mr Acquah reiterated the need for the students and the authorities in the tertiary institutions to continue observing the COVID-19 preventive protocols.

Although he said it was encouraging that the country's active cases had reduced drastically, he advised that it should not be a reason for "us to lose our guard."

Government applauded

At the Catholic Institute of Business Technology (CIBT) near the Information Ministry, the Registrar, Mr Perry Ofosu, applauded the government's collaborative effort with Zoomlion to fight the virus.

The Registrar of CIBT, who was excited about the second disinfection exercise in his school, stated that they had put in place adequate safety measures to receive the continuing students on Monday.

The measures, he said, included placing Veronica buckets at vantage points and ensuring that the students observed social/physical distancing.
"We will also provide each student with two reusable nose masks," Mr Ofosu added.