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The National Democratic Congress (NDC) has donated some Personal Protective Equipment (PPEs) and medicines to the Upper West Regional Health Directorate to aid the fight against COVID-19 and the outbreak of Cerebral Spinal Meningitis (CSM) in the region.

Details of the donation include 50 pieces of overall gowns, 50 pieces of gumboots, 1,000 pieces of ceftriaxone (CSM injection), 1,000 pieces of surgical gloves and 100 pieces of face/nose masks.

Sir Dr Edward N. Gyader, a former Member of the Council of State who presented the items on behalf of former President John Dramani Mahama, noted that the region was fighting two battles including the global COVID-19 pandemic and the meningitis outbreak.

Aware of this, he said, the former President and the NDC, therefore, deemed it fit to assist health workers who were the frontline 'soldiers' fighting the battle on behalf of people of the nation with the necessary tools to enable them to win the battle.

Sir Dr Gyader said the devastative nature of COVID-19 on other nations already called for the need to put pragmatic measures in place to ensure that Ghana does not get to that level of devastation.

On meningitis, Sir Dr Gyader who worked at the Upper West Regional Hospital for several years noted that the region was an endemic zone and called for pragmatic measures to block the resurgence of the disease every year around this period.

The former Member of the Council of State said even as they donate to support the frontline workers, they would also continue to help in educating the general public on the prescribed protocols to help reduce the spread of the disease.

Dr Osei Afreh Kuffuor, the Upper West Regional Director of Health Services noted that ever since the problem occurred, they had made calls to individuals and organisations for support and that the donation from the NDC had come to complement what they had already received.

He said the fight against COVID-19 was not only for government and expressed gratitude to former President Mahama and the NDC for the kind gesture and called on others to emulate the kind gesture.

He noted that the region had four holding centers and that they would make sure they all received the items and put to good use to combat the spread of the two diseases.

The region has so far recorded one positive case of COVID-19 and 214 cases of CSM with 33 deaths.