COVID-19 Trust Fund presents GH¢6.8m to Infectious Diseases Centre

The National COVID-19 Trust Fund has presented GH¢6.8 million to the Ghana COVID-19 Private Sector Fund as its contribution to the Ghana Infectious Diseases Centre (GIDC).

The centre, the first of its kind in the country, is the initiative of the Ghana COVID-19 Private Sector Fund, was inaugurated in Accra last month for use as a treatment centre for critically ill coronavirus disease (COVID-19) patients.

The ultra-modern 100-bed facility will later be used as a treatment centre for other infectious diseases such as Ebola and cerebro-spinal meningitis (CSM).

Visit

The Chairperson of the National COVID-19 Trust Fund, former Chief Justice Sophia Akuffo, who facilitated the transfer of the funds, said the donation was in support of the GIDC in recognition of the lead role the private sector played to help bolster the nation’s capacity to contain the COVID-19.

During a recent visit to the centre, Justice Akuffo commended the use of home-grown talents in the construction of the facility.

“Looking at the centre, the way it’s been laid out for total safety of the medical staff, patients and the public, it looks very comfortable; it looks very clean.

“It’s very well thought out, a very humane installation. The beauty of it is that most of the inputs for the building and the skills are Ghanaian. It’s home-grown,” she added.

She said Ghana was blessed to have private sector operators who had the health of the nation at heart and decided to take the initiative.

“Our elders say if you do a good thing, you get a good push. It is in this vein that we in the public sector fund deem it necessary to provide GH¢6.8 million to help pay off the cost of putting up this magnificent and useful edifice,” she said.

In recognition of the support, one of the wings of a ward, including the centre’s laboratory, has been named for the National COVID-19 Trust Fund.

Gratitude

A managing trustee of the Ghana COVID-19 Private Sector Fund, Mr Senyo Hosi, expressed gratitude to the COVID-19 Trust Fund for the support.

He said it was a testimony of what Ghanaians could achieve if the public and the private sectors worked together.

“We are one people with a common vision of a Ghana fit for all its citizens. Some of us work in the private sector, others work in the public sector, but the goal is the same,” Mr Hosi said, adding: “This is an example of Ghanaians from the two sectors working together, pooling resources to achieve the common objective of fighting a common enemy.”

The private sector fund intends to build another infectious disease centre in Kumasi to serve the northern part of the country.

Mr Hosi expressed the hope that both corporate citizens and individuals would contribute generously towards the realisation of the nation’s second infectious diseases centre.