SONA: Gov't to establish 14 medical waste centres

The Government Tuesday announced plans to establish 14 treatment sites to ensure the proper management and disposal of medical.

President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, who announced, this in Accra, when he delivered the State-of-the- Nation- Address (SONA), said those infrastructural projects would be pursued through public - private sector collaboration.

Some waste materials to be treated at the centres are needles, syringes and personal protective equipment.

Ahead of the mass COVID-19 vaccination exercise, Zoompak Ghana Limited, a subsidiary company of Jospong Group of Companies (JGC), expressed its readiness to handle medical waste that would be generated from the mass vaccination exercise.

President Akufo-Addo stated that the 'Agenda 111'- the construction of 100-bed district hospitals in districts without health facilities - was the biggest healthcare investment in the history of the country and expressed his government's readiness to fulfill that promise.

That, he said, would make Ghana the centre of medical excellence and medical tourism in the subregion.

The President assured of his readiness to recruit more health professionals in his second term, following the employment of 100,000 health workers in the first term of his administration.

That, he said, would improve the delivery of healthcare services in every nook and cranny of the country.

President Akufo-Addo said that the Upper West, Upper East and Bono regions would soon go live on the e-health system to enhance delivery of healthcare.

He reiterated his commitment to have 20 million Ghanaians vaccinated against COVID-19 during the mass vaccination programme to help create herd immunity for the population.

The mass vaccination programme started on Tuesday, March 2, after the President, the Vice President and other high level public officials had taken their shots a day earlier.