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The Environmental Health Officers Alliance-Ghana has called for the inclusion of members in the COVID-19 National Response Team to enhance the fight against the disease.

Mr Yaw Akwaa Lartey, the President of the Alliance, said environmental officers were key enforcement agents hence the need to include them in the Team to complement government’s efforts at preventing the spread of the virus.

That would also help advice government on environmental health issues since the fight against the disease was basically about observing hygiene protocols.

Mr Lartey, who made the call at a press conference in Accra, said;
“As the famous adage goes; prevention is better than cure, it is incumbent on the Government to take a critical consideration of involving the Environmental Health Officers towards preventing the continuous spread of this pandemic.”

He explained that members across the country had been unduly exposed to risk in the performance of their duties in relation to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We are still working as we were expected to work (sanitary services) without any Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) and other resources in our various jurisdictions in the communities,” Mr Lartey said.

He said without the needed PPE members of the Association still worked more than the maximum eight hours a day or 40 hours a week and sometimes on weekends without any form of shift system and/or additional duty allowances.

In recent times, he said, there were reports of unknown deaths where environmental health officers were called upon to remove those bodies for subsequent action.

He called on the Government and all relevant stakeholders to put the necessary measures in place by prioritising their roles as a matter of urgency towards curbing the community spread of COVID-19.