Officers of the Ghana Armed Forces (GAF) and the Ghana Police Service who were in the frontline to help enforce the three-week partial lockdown of Accra, Kumasi, Tema and Kasoa, are to undergo testing for the coronavirus.
The testing, which the Police and Military Commands said was part of their standard operation procedures, is to ensure those service men and women who were exposed to the virus were free from the disease before returning to their units.
The Director, Public Relations of the GAF, Col. Eric Aggrey Quarshie, and the Director of Public Affairs of the Ghana Police Service, Supt Mrs Sheila Kessie Abayie-Buckman, confirmed in separate interviews with the Daily Graphic in Accra yesterday that all the necessary arrangements were in place to make the exercise successful.
The medical corps of the two security agencies were coordinating the testing at the accredited testing centres in the country.
Both Col. Quarshie and Supt. Abayie-Buckman could not state the number of officers who were to undergo the testing but indications were that they would be in the thousands.
But a source told the Daily Graphic that the police could number 10,000 while the soldiers could be in the region of 2,000.
Before the partial lockdown announced by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo came into force on March 30, this year, the Police Administration had issued a statement which said the entire police population were being mobilised for the enforcement.
Col. Quarshie stated that officers would have to be cleared of the virus before being allowed to go back to work.Col. Quarshie said the GAF had started the exercise.He said for the soldiers, it was good for them to undergo the test so that psychologically, they know that they had not been exposed to anything dangerous.
Even the journalists who went round to the hospitals and the treatment centres and other areas need to be tested,” he stated.
Making reference to the outbreak of the Ebola viral disease in Liberia, he said the Ghanaian soldiers who went there on operation were quarantined in the area after they completed their assignment to establish that they were not carrying the virus before they were allowed to return home.
For her part, Supt Abayie-Buckman said the Police Administration saw the exercise as an opportunity for the officers who were in the frontline to test for the virus.
“Those who were exposed have been given the opportunity to test for COVID-19. We see it as an opportunity for the frontline staff,” she said.
According to the police spokesperson, the IGP issued a signal for medical officers to take samples of officers who were in the frontline so that they would be tested.
In addition to that, all police officers were to abide by the hygienic protocols.”
“It’s all about the welfare of the police officer and, as such, whatever we have to do, we will do so that it doesn’t come with any negativity,” she added.
Source:Fiilafmonline/Graphic
