The General Manager of Health Services at the Ghana Ports Harbours Authority, Dr. Vitus Anaab-Bisi, has urged both health and port security agencies to be extra vigilant in this period of coronavirus prevention due the varied ways of contracting the disease.

“We, who have been given the mandate to take care of the port should be very vigilant because the port is an entry point to this country. Like every other form of border, goods and services pass through there, and so can disease,” he said.

Speaking to Eye on Port on the topic: Coronavirus, A Global Threat to Trade and Shipping: Impact, Interventions and Remedies, he revealed that because health authorities are aware of Ghana’s limited health infrastructure, allied health agencies in the country, are being proactive to ensure that the country engages in all possible preventive measures so that Ghana does not record a case of coronavirus.

He said the Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority has collaborated with the Port Health Unit of the Ghana Health Service to sensitize all operators and stakeholders of Ghana’s port, to create a desired level of preparedness among individuals who engage in activities in and around the port.

“Together with Eye on Port and Port Health, we straight away embarked on these sensitization exercises. We have to take all the necessary precautions. Basic disease control, basic disease surveillance and international precautions that need to be taken.”

He also disclosed that the Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority has budgeted to procure necessary safety gears for personnel who work in the port so that they can be 100% protected during their operations.

“There are plans that the Director General is going to roll out. They have devoted to an emergency budget for us to purchase protective clothing,” he revealed. 

Dr. Anaab-Bisi, however, expressed worry for the safety of GPHA pilots who currently engage vessels first off instead of Port Health, during berthing of vessels in the port, and called for improved collaboration between GPHA’s marine operations department and port health unit at the Tema port for improved precaution.

“Just as GPHA has been supporting a lot of agencies, especially government agencies working in and around the port to do their work, in the same vein, we can support Port Health to do their work right. They have to join our Marine Operations team on the tugboats, which will enable the Port Health go on board vessels first at the anchorage to declare it safe before all pilots will go on board…”