GHANA- The Ministry of Health on Jul 31, 2020, reported the safe arrival of 95 Ghanaian nurses in Bridgetown, the capital of Barbados, recruited to work in the Caribbean nation.
A new report indicated that nine of the Ghanaians nurses who travelled to work in Barbados for two years have tested positive for COVID-19.
According to the acting Chief Medical Officer of Barbados, Dr. Kenneth George, the 9 nurses who tested positive are asymptomatic. A group picture of them at the airport shows some without face masks and no social distancing, thus breaching covid-19 protocols on preventing the spread of COVID-19.
Editor of the Finder Newspaper, Elvis Darko on Breakfast Daily on Citi Fm is asking the Government of Ghana if the Ghanaian nurses were tested before they left for Barbados. He believes an answer from the government will give a fair idea of whether the nine nurses were infected before travelling or in transit.
It is an open secret of how Ghanaian nurses on several occasions demonstrate against the government for remaining unemployed after graduating for years even though the country faces a shortage of nurses and doctors.
On January 28, 2020, graduate nurses and midwives in Ghana threatened to demonstrate against the government for not recruiting them.
It is assumed by some that the government might be compelled to send the nurses to Barbados to ease the pressure on the government to employ them.
However, some Ghanaians are also wondering why the government cannot put in measures to employ the nurses since more health workers are required to fight COVID-19.
Barbados earlier on launched a one-year working visa for foreigners to live and work despite the COVID-19 pandemic.
Barbados has recorded 132 covid-19 cases, 98 recoveries and 7 deaths while Ghana has recorded 37,014 cases, 33,365 recoveries and 182 deaths making Ghana one of the covid-19 hotspots in Africa.
Renate is a lawyer, publicist, and writer. She believes that education and information is the key to developing and shaping Africa. In her free time, she paints beautiful art pieces on canvas. Renate believes that life is a perception, and you live it the way you perceive it.