President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has announced a GHs350,000 insurance package for each health personnel and allied professional at the forefront of the fight against the coronavirus outbreak.

Ghana has, so far, recorded 214 cases of COVID-19.

Addressing the nation on Sunday, April 5, the president said an insurance package, with an assured sum of three hundred and fifty thousand cedis (GHS350,000) for each health personnel and allied professional at the forefront of the fight, has been put in place, with a daily allowance of one hundred and fifty cedis (GHS150) being paid to contact tracers.

“The government has also decided that all health workers will not pay taxes on their emoluments for the next three months, i.e. April, May and June. Furthermore, all frontline health workers will receive an additional allowance of fifty per cent (50%) of their basic salary per month, i.e. for March, April, May and June.

“The March allowance will be paid alongside that of April. The Ministry of Transport is also making available, for free, ‘Aayalolo’ buses to convey health workers in Accra, Tema, Kumasi and Kasoa to and from work, along specific routes, for the entire duration of the restrictions.

“I am happy that operators of public transport, such as trotros and taxis, are largely adhering to the admonition to observe social distancing in their vehicles. Each one of them should do so.”

He added: “Toward ensuring the cleanliness of our country, especially in the Greater Accra and the Greater Kumasi areas, which are currently the subjects of the restrictions, the Ministry of Sanitation and Water Resources, together with some four hundred (400) personnel drawn from the Police, Military, Fire Service and Prisons Service, from Friday, 3rd April, to today, Sunday, 5th April, have embarked on desilting our gutters, collection and disposal of garbage from homes, public places, markets and vehicle terminals.

“We must ensure that the end of this exercise will lead to a new attitude towards cleanliness in our surroundings.

“That would be a positive legacy from this crisis. MMDAs outside the areas affected by the restrictions have been directed to emulate this clean-up exercise.”