The government of Ghana has released 15 ‘aayalolo’ buses to transport health workers to and from their posts on a daily basis as part of measures to ease the lockdown burden on them.

“We have made available 15 ‘aayalolo’ buses now in Accra and there are a number again in Kumasi”, Health Minister Kweku Agyeman-Manu told journalists on Tuesday, adding: “This operation started yesterday”.

The ‘health staff’ labelled buses are “strictly to be utilised by health workers”, the minister said.

Accra, Tema, Kasoa and Kumasi are currently on a lockdown, as part of measures by the government to mitigate the spread of the coronavirus, which has, so far, killed five out of the two hundred eighty-seven confirmed cases.

Some health workers and frontline staff complained of difficulty with transportation to and from work during the first week of the two-week lockdown, thus, the government’s intervention.

The minister said the buses will ply routes of some major hospitals and polyclinics in various parts of Accra. 

“So, the 15 buses between Accra and Tema are operating on our major routes but we have asked them to go close to clinics where these workers are, to facilitate their movement. … We’ve given ample fuel and it looks like the operation worked very well yesterday”.