The Ghana Registered Nurses and Midwifery Association (GRNMA) has revealed that 87 of its members have tested positive for the coronavirus across the country.

According to the Association’s General Secretary, eight of them have recovered whilst one has succumbed to the virus.

David Tenkorang-Twum  who was speaking on Joy News’ The Pulse Wednesday, also added that 312 nurses and midwives have been exposed to the virus and are currently under mandatory quarantine.

He described the situation as worrying since the health workers are the primary human resources assisting the country to combat the virus.

Mr Tekorang-Twum was of the view that inadequate supply of Personal Protective Equipment (PPEs) and other logistics to peripheral health facilities has caused the current situation and must be rectified.

“This is what we [GRNMA] have been talking about, right from the beginning we made it clear that the concentration shouldn’t be focused on only those at the Covid-19 isolation centres,” he said.

According to him, although two of the nurses who have tested positive for the virus were at the isolation centre, majority of them were at peripheral health facilities.

For him, health personnel at the various health facilities across the country are more at risk to the individuals at the isolation centres.

“For this disease, someone can carry asymptomatically so the nurse or midwife who has no idea about the person you are dealing with, being positive or negative is more at risk to the one who knows,” he stressed.

Mr Tenkorang-Twum noted that the steady rise of infection amongst frontline health workers needs to be addressed thus, adequate protective suites must be given to all health facilities.

“It is not that the nurses are not taking good care of themselves, the figures could have been more than this, but because of their training and the only problem is that they do not have the adequate logistics to take care of themselves like they are suppose to.”