WeCAPS believed that in these times when the global threat posed by the coronavirus pandemic has triggered dire consequences for whole societies and nations, the maritime industry is playing an essential role in the response.

This was in a statement issued by Marion Piccio, communication expert, WeCAPS, and copied to the Ghana News Agency in Accra.

 The statement said given the situation it was important to allow maritime trade to continue and the world's ports remain open.

"The EU reacted promptly in response to this crisis and WeCAPS adapted its operations adopting measures to protect the personnel working in port communities and ensure the continuity of maritime operations", it added.

The statement said WeCAPS approached partners of the project, in consultation with the European Union Delegations concerned and Expertise France with a series of actions to support them in facing this crisis.

It said the meeting discussed issues on knowledge sharing and distance learning platform concerning biological risk, with a focus on the SARS-CoV-2 Coronavirus and the associated COVID-19 disease, to enable port actors to have a good basic knowledge of the disease, its modes of propagation and the measures to be implemented to protect all personnel.

The project also addressed to the beneficiary ports its best practice guide, developed by the project's civil protection expert and based on the operational procedures of European fire and rescue services, aimed at port authorities and first responders.

This it said would enable them to continue their activities and carry out safety and security missions while respecting "barrier" gestures.

It said WeCAPS will provide Personal Protective Equipment and operational response equipment to deal with the health crisis.

"These actions aim to help WeCAPS' partner ports to address their urgent needs, enabling them to cope with the urgency of the situation and to maintain their activity operational, to continue supplying the countries of the region".

WeCAPS is an EU project implemented by Expertise France, which contributes to strengthening the security and safety of West and Central African ports.