The Ghana Health Service has declared the workplace as one of the stations driving the country’s COVID-19 case count upward.
To this end, the Ghana Employers’ Association (GEA) in collaboration with the Ministry of Health (MOH) and the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MOTI held an emergency meeting this week, to flesh out an appropriate response to ensure workplace safety.
The general consensus reached is that all organisations are to strictly comply with the social distancing and other protocols which have been outlined by the Ghana Health Service.
The meeting also urged all businesses to create COVID-19 reporting avenues so workers who have come into contact with persons tested positive can report and have the issue handled in a discreet and professional manner to prevent stigmatisation.
Organisations must endeavour to provide facilities for mandatorily checking temperatures of all workers, visitors and customers at the entry point of their premises, as well as staff buses. Additionally, organisations are to ensure a ‘No Mask No Entry’’ policy, and they must endeavour to provide their workers with PPE and ensure that they are utilised.
Also, all organisations are obliged to cooperate with the COVID-19 team of the MOH/GHS in the event that they request to trace and test any worker in their respective organisations.
While the workplace has been declared a hotspot for transmission of the virus, it is imperative that the workplace is kept safe as Ghanaians go about trying to make a living to keep body and soul together in these trying economic times.
This is important in view of the fact that Health Minister Mr. Agyeman-Manu, at the press conference yesterday, stated that the nation will not again plunge any location into a lockdown – considering the dire economic and social impacts experienced during the three-week partial lockdown of Greater Accra, Kasoa and Greater Kumasi.
As he observed, COVID-19 is here to stay until a vaccine has been developed to counter it; therefore, in the meantime we must employ all health protocols prescribed to ensure we are safe from contracting the deadly virus.
While it is important for some economic activity to take place, it must be done in a responsible manner; hence the directive for employers to ensure proper hygienic conditions as well as prescribed WHO health protocols.
