The administrator of the Tarkwa Municipal Hospital, Mukabbir Amasa Abass has revealed that the hospital is preparing to airlift an 11-year-old boy, who is in critical condition to Accra for treatment.

According to him, one person on admission at the hospital, has died this dawn, while three persons, out of the 31 who were sent there, have been discharged.

Speaking to JoyNews, he said the hospital still has many of the victims on admission.

“We have 14 of those victims on admission currently at the various wards and as we speak now, we have another 11 of them detained at the accident and emergency unit. The 11 at the accident and emergency unit could be transferred to the ward depending on the individual, or discharged if the person becomes more stable. So that is the current situation. The discharges so far were three and the death recorded was one and then the referrals, two.

Out of the referrals, we have one of them to be airlifted soon to 37 Military Hospital by the Military aircraft, so we were told by our Regional Director of Health Service, Dr. Ofori Yeboah that the Minister and the regional caucus have put in a mechanism to get the airplane to come down to airlift the young boy, fairly around 11 years of age, to 37 Military Hospital,” he told JoyNews.

Earlier, the hospital was reported to have been in urgent need of blood to offer treatment to the victims of the explosion.

However, Mukabbir Amasa Abass said this challenge has been resolved.

“Currently, the situation has come to normal. We don’t necessarily need blood, we were in dire need yesterday…the situation has become normal, so we have some in our blood bank as we speak,” he added.

Meanwhile, Government has indicated that it will cater for the medical expenses of the 59 persons injured in the Apeatse explosion.

In a tweet, Information Minister, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah stated that Vice-President, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia made the announcement on Friday during his visit to St. Michael’s Catholic Parish, Bogoso, where the victims have been provided temporary shelter.

“Vice-President, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia has, at the end of his visit, announced Government will take up the medical bills of all injured persons.”

He added, “families of the deceased will also be assisted. Once again our best wishes remain with the scores of people affected by this tragedy.”