The construction of a national isolation centre in Tamale is yet to take place weeks after the Ghana Health Service announced it will set up three centres to accommodate Ebola patients in case of an outbreak.

The isolation centres which will be set aside for accommodating and handling Ebola patients are part of strategies government has put in place to fight the Ebola scourge.

Joy News’ Northern Regional correspondent Hashmin Mohammed, who visited the site at the Tamale Teaching hospital, reports that the facility is yet to be constructed.

According him, his encounter with the Deputy Director of Public Health of the Northern Regional Health Directorate Jacob Mahama, revealed that the facility’s progress was hinged upon National Security’s efforts to get the facility ready.

Upon completion, the three national isolation centres are expected to be fitted with technical and personal protective equipments (PPE’s) to deal with the situation in the instance of an outbreak.

Two of the same facilities are being constructed in Tema and Accra to serve the same purpose.

Hashmin further reports that the Tamale isolation centre is poorly resourced as it has no beds or sophisticated materials needed to handle the situation.

A holding room which has also been designated to accommodate and handle Ebola patients till results are known, has only ten beds available.

Among formidable measures put in place to combat the epidemic in case of any occurrence, is the allocation of six million cedis by President John Mahama. Part of the money would be used in procuring 10,000 additional PPE’s.

The Ebola virus has ravaged West African countries like Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone and very recently Senegal.

It has claimed over 1,500 lives and has affected over 3,000people since its outbreak in March.

Nonetheless, Health Ministers  Economic Community of West African  States (ECOWAS) in a meeting on combating the deadly Ebola virus in Accra, last Thursday, reached a consensus to lift bans for airlines to resume operations to countries affected by the Ebola virus Disease and open borders for immediate supply of medical supplies and other essentials to contain the spread of the outbreak.

The appeal comes in the wake when the World Health Organization (WHO) warned that the travel restrictions imposed to combat the epidemic would only exacerbate the situation.

WHO has warned that more than 20,000 people could be affected by the virus.