Henceforth, only emergency and life-threatening surgeries will be attended to, says the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital (KBTH).

This is due to a shortage of healthcare staff as relayed by the Public Relations Officer of the Hospital, Mustapha Salifu.

Explaining the reasons, as reported by citinewsroom.com, he said that some staff members have been deployed to assist and manage the coronavirus in other facilities across the country, thereby reducing their staff strength.

He however assured the public that the hospital will resume full operations when the coronavirus situation is brought under considerable control.

“The number of our staff has reduced. This is because some of them have been mobilized to support the national fight against COVID-19. The ones we have left attend to urgent cases, such as accidents. So patients whose lives are not under threat can wait. When we are out of the woods, and there is little pressure, we can attend to them,” he explained.

Earlier, the Ghana Medical Association (GMA) had bemoaned the alarming rate of infection among its members, noting that the situation could adversely impact on the country’s health system given the roles they play at the frontline in the fight against the pandemic.

Last July, the Association issued a statement on how more than 150 medical doctors and dentists had tested positive for the virus since the outbreak in Ghana, following which four of its members succumbed to the virus that same month.

The government has so far facilitated the vaccination of 200,000 persons although its target for the first phase of vaccination is 570,000 people; an estimation that the country is likely to exceed, reports citinewsroom.com.

Ultimately, 20 million people are expected to be vaccinated in the country so as to achieve herd immunity.