A GH¢600,000 refurbished COVID-19 treatment centre for the Berekum Holy Family Hospital has been inaugurated at Berekum, in the Bono Region.

The 10-bed facility, funded by the Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), has a High Dependency Unit with state-of-the-art equipment for the treatment of severe and critical cases of COVID-19.

It was constructed under the COVID-19 Response and Institutional Capacity Building (CRIB).

The facility, which is being run within the Christian Health Association of Ghana (CHAG), seeks to support the government’s response to COVID-19 in strengthening the country’s health systems to maintain the delivery of essential healthcare services and mobilise all available resources for COVID-19 response actions.

The project is currently being undertaken within CHAG facilities that have district hospitals in 40 districts in 15 out of 16 regions.

The Development Director, British High Commission, Ghana, Elizabeth Ashley Cadman, said the high dependency unit was the second of three High Dependency Units “we are supporting through the CHAG to contribute and prevent the unnecessary deaths from the COVID-19.”

She noted that the Ministry of Health, in partnership with CHAG continued to provide the necessary support to health facilities for COVID-19, including medical supplies and quality training for staff, adding that the skills, equipment, and facilities were useful, not just for the treatment of severe COVID-19, but also for other diseases needing critical care, stressing that, “we must prepare for the future while addressing the present situation.”

The UK government, she said, continued to champion equitable vaccines access to the poor, marginalised and most vulnerable by “our Prime Minister’s commitment to donate 100 million vaccines doses by 2022.”

The Executive Director of CHAG, Dr Peter Yeboah, said the CRIB Project had trained 6,430 health care workers in Infection Prevention and Control, Case Management, Contact tracing and Triaging.

“As part of our risk and behavioural change communications, many trained community health workers have reached out to several homes in rural areas with essential and factual messages on COVID-19, and thereby helping rural communities to stay safe from COVID-19,” he said.

The Bono Regional Minister, Justina Owusu Banahene, commended staff and management of the Berekum Holy Family Hospital for their hard work and saving lives of citizens in the area who seek healthcare in the facility.

The Bono Regional Health Director, Dr Kofi Amo-Kodieh, disclosed that out of the 2011 cases recorded in the region, 89 people succumbed to the disease.

He, therefore, stressed the need for the public not to let their guard down with the safety protocols in order to check the spread of the disease.