Currently, almost all
local alcoholic beverage distillery companies in Kumasi as well as institutions
such as the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Kumasi
Technical University and the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH), are
producing hand sanitizers.
This mass production seems to have flooded the
local market, forcing the prices of personal hygiene and protective medical
disinfectant, down to the reach of the majority of the people.
A survey conducted by the Ghana News Agency
(GNA) Business Desk in Kumasi to sample prices of hand sanitizers, barely forty
(40) days after Ghana recorded its first two cases of coronavirus, saw a
drastic reduction in prices of the product.
A medium-size standard hand sanitizer produced
per the required standards of the World Health Organization (WHO), Food and
Drugs Authority (FDA) and Ghana Standard Authority (GSA), is now selling
between GH¢10.00 – GH¢15.00, about half the price, when the product gained
instant prominence, following the recording of the first COVID-19 case in the
country.
The small sizes could also be purchased for
GH¢7.00 or GH¢8.00.
The Food and Drugs Authority (FDA) has however,
cautioned the public against the purchase and use of fake and unapproved hand
sanitizers.
The GNA gathered that a standard hand sanitizer
must have an ethanol content of about 65 percent, to be able to kill harmful bacteria.
Dr. Ernest Kwarko, a Technical Member of the
Kumasi Metropolitan Emergency Health Committee, the body mandated to coordinate
the campaign against COVID-19, told the GNA in an interview that, the use of
hand sanitizers, face masks and other personal protective items should not be
compromised at this critical time.
Ghana has over the last one month, recorded more
than one thousand (1,000) confirmed cases of COVID-19 and nine deaths.
Dr. Kwarko advised the public to make the use of
protective items and personal hygiene such as regular washing of hands under
running water, a regular feature in their daily lives to help prevent
infections.
They should also adhere to all health guidelines
and protocols, such as social distancing instituted by the government for their
safety.
Source: Ghana News Agency