U.S. Embassy, AFRICOM donate PPE and Medical Supplies to Kumasi South Regional Hospital
The U.S. Embassy in Ghana and the United States Africa Command (USAFRICOM) has donated critical medical supplies and Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) to the Kumasi South Regional Hospital in the Ashanti region.
The donation was done on behalf of the two institutions by the Chief of Security Cooperation at the US Embassy Ghana, Major Michael Kummerer.
The gesture forms part of efforts to support the activities of frontline workers in the Covid-19 pandemic.
Presenting the items, Maj. Kummerer said “This is a donation from the Embassy and the Africa Command to the Kumasi South Regional Hospital.”
“We’re really focused on trying to help provide some of the needed equipment to the frontline workers, to the hospital staff, doctors, and nurses that are working every day, putting their own health and their lives at risk to protect the people of the Ashanti region and try to stop or prevent the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic,” he said.
A similar exercise was undertaken at the Effia Nkwanta Regional Hospital on the same day, Tuesday September 1, 2020.
The supplies for the two regional donations, valued at Ghs430,000 included 10,000 N95 face masks, 1,600 hospital gowns, 2,000 liters of methylated spirit, 3,000 liters of sodium hypochlorite, 20 glucometers, 200 glucometer strips, and 14 pulse oximeters.
Speaking at a handing over ceremony at the Burma Camp in Accra on August 28, the U.S. Ambassador to Ghana, Her Excellency Stephanie S. Sullivan stated that: “The United States is leading the world in providing critical international assistance as together we battle this global pandemic.”
“The Ghana Armed Forces (GAF) continues to play a leading role, along with the Ministry of Health in responding to the pandemic here in Ghana. The U.S Embassy and AFRICOM are proud to partner GAF in this and many endeavors”, she further intimated.
Receiving the items, the Clinical Care Coordinator at the Kumasi South Regional Hospital, Dr. Angela Durowaa Frempong on behalf of the hospital, and the Ghana Health Service expressed gratitude to the U.S Embassy Ghana, AFRICOM, and GAF for the donation.
She opined that it would go a long way to support the clinical assessment and treatment of infectious diseases in the community especially as air traffic had resumed.
“We know you are facing our own struggles with coronavirus and to be able to give to people in times of your need, it goes to show how big a heart that you have for others and we really appreciate it.
“We promise you, we’ll put to good use of what you’ve given us the hospital, for the patients we will continue to have. At the height of the coronavirus, we had a 40-bed facility that we were taken care of; it is a treatment centre for moderately ill to severely ill patients.”
Dr. Frempong continued that: “We had the first recovery in Ghana, we delivered the first pregnant woman with COVID in Ghana so we’ve done a lot but now we’re resting a bit, we don’t have any patients currently but the borders are opened so we don’t know what’s going to happen and so we’re always on alert waiting to receive whenever we’re told to,” he said.
USAFRICOM in February 2020, provided two state-of-the-art Level II Field Hospitals to the Ghana Armed Forces, alongside some medical supplies donation.
The GAF has since deployed one of the hospitals in Accra and it is now the second-largest Covid-19 treatment center in Ghana.