Dr. Mary Amoako Coleman, a Public Health Physician and a member of the Ghana Medical Association (GMA), has urged the Ghana Health Service and employers to analyse and breakdown reports indicating that, most of the second wave of COVID-19 virus are being recorded at workplaces.
Speaking on how various workplaces can ensure productivity whiles protecting their lives, she posited that, a thorough analysis has to be made to identify the source of spread being it from the formal or informal sector in order to deal with it effectively.
This comes on the back of reports by Ghana Health Service identifying the workplace as one of the critical places for the spread of the COVID-19 virus in the country.
“This is to say that, this is very good information we are getting but we also need to look at it in context. I think we need to find out if this workplace we are reporting is formal or informal work place.
“The truth is that a lot of these places will be the formal ones. These are places were, when someone gets infected, employers tend to be most concern and there is mostly contact tracing and so on so we get to actually get the result of all the members.”
She averred that, the workplace is where people spend a lot of time, they congregate and a place where interaction is quite intensive. She then stated that, if someone gets infected in a work space, they can pass it on to others.
“I wouldn’t say the work place is dangerous because you cannot say the infection comes from that place. People go to all sort of places but they converge at this place. This might be a good revelation but might just also be the tip of the iceberg for the virus at workplaces.”
She urged that the research by the GHS be broken down and analysed well to enable an effective solution to be proposed.
Also contributing to the discussion, Eugene Abraham, Research and Communications Manager at the Ghana Employers Association (GEA), stated that, the first wave of COVID-19 had an impact on both employers and employees which resulted in some companies folding up and some employees losing their jobs.
Due to this, he urged companies to effectively implement measures and also ensure that measures are adhered to so as not to take the country back to the negative impact the virus had on the economy.
Speaking on the dire nature of the second wave of the virus on workers, he posited that, initially the virus was under control at various work places because most of the institutions were adhering to all measures till most of them unfortunately let their guard down.
He noted on the back of this that, if the virus is not curbed immediately, it will have an adverse effect on the economy and the wages for workers as it happened during the previous lockdown.
