The co-chair of the Ghana Covid-19 Private Sector Fund, Edward Effah has commended the professionals and workmen/women women who have worked hard over the last 12 weeks to build Ghana’s first infectious disease centre at the Ga East Municipal Hospital in Accra.

Mr. Effah, who is the chairman of Fidelity Bank Ghana, says the response from the built environment professionals (surveyors, architects and engineers) to proposals to build the 100-bed facility was overwhelming right from the start, with most of them working for free.

“It’s unbelievable to see professionals work together for Mother Ghana pro-bono,” he says. “Within a week they had designed and put together all the drawings for the hospital and they worked 24/7. [Now] we have a fully equipped hospital ready for use: a 100-bed hospital facility, with a 20-bed intensive care facility with a first-class laboratory, with its own morgue, with its own back-up generator and system and so many other facilities that we’ve been able to put together here.”

The Ghana Infectious Disease Centre is scheduled to be commissioned by Vice President, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, on Friday July 24, 2020 – three months after ground was broken for the project to start on April 17, 2020.

“We cannot but to say a very big ‘thank you’ to all who have been involved to make this a reality,” Mr. Effah says. “It shows what we can do together as Ghanaians; that we can come together, work together and deliver world class results devoid of politics, devoid of tribe.”

After the commissioning ceremony on Friday the Ghana Covid-19 Private Sector Fund will hand over the infectious disease centre to the Ministry of Health which will determine when the facility will open its doors to its first patients. The facility will initially be used for the isolation and treatment of critically ill covid-19 patients. When the pandemic has ended, it will be used to treat other infectious disease such as ebola and cerebrospinal meningitis.

The Ghana Covid-19 Private Sector Fund intends to raise more money to build similar infectious disease centres in Kumasi, Tamale and Takoradi