Hospital authorities have provided Veronica Buckets, medicated soaps and sanitizers at the precincts of the Out Patient Department (OPD) and the Accident and Emergencies Unit.

This is to enable health workers, patients and visitors entering the facility to wash and clean their hands under running water.

The authorities have also mounted separate desks, where health workers and all visitors check their body temperatures.

During a visit to the facility by Mrs Evelyn Ama Kumi Richardson, the Bono Regional Minister to assess the preparedness of the hospital towards addressing the COVID-19, the hospital premises was found to be calm as few patients were sighted.

Accompanied by Dr Kofi Issah and some key staff of the Regional Coordinating Council and the Regional Health Directorate, Dr Emmanuel Kofi Amponsah, the Medical Director of the hospital, conducted the Regional Minister and her entourage round the facility.

Dr Amponsah said two cubicles had been set aside as holding rooms to contained any suspected case of the COVID-19 at the hospital, adding the facility had also provided health workers who might be attending to suspected cases with safety gears.

He explained that work on an isolation block which was being put up by the hospital during the outbreak of the Ebola disease had been abandoned due to lack of funds, and appealed to the regional minister to help complete the project which could be serve as an isolation facility for confirmed cases of the COVID-19.

On her part, Mrs Richardson expressed satisfaction over the readiness of the hospital to control or address any possible outbreak of the COVID-19 in the region, and advised the health workers to also ensure their safety as well.

Dr Issah explained  that the regional directorate had set up a regional response team to attend to any suspected case, and advised the general public to observe personal hygiene by using sanitizes and washing of hands under running water.