Enchi College of Education in the Western North Region, has received Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) from the Government to prevent the spread of COVID-19 among students.

The items comprised 1,314 pieces of nose masks, two non-contact thermometers, 438 bottles of alcoholic based hand sanitizers, six gallons of liquid soap, six Veronica buckets and 12 bundles of tissue papers.

Mr Phillip Ntaah, Principal of Enchi College of Education, who disclosed this in an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA), said each student as well as teaching and non-teaching staff, had three nose masks and hand sanitizers.

He stated that as of 11.45am on Friday June 26, 336 students out of 352 had reported for academic work.

The principal said since the President gave directives for final year tertiary students to return to school, management had been working closely with the Aowin Municipal Health Directorate and that as of now no one had shown any signs of COVID-19.

He indicated that to contain the situation and protect the students, teachers and non-teaching staff, management earlier procured 130 pieces of nose masks, three infrared thermometers, five gallons of alcohol based hand sanitizers, four gallons of liquid soap, 17 Veronica buckets, 50 bundles of tissue papers, four soap dispensers, two hand dryers and 60 face shields for onward distribution.

According to the principal, these were to ensure that their teaching and non-teaching staff become comfortable as they would be interacting more with students.

He explained that “because most of the students reported to school with lots of anxiety, management had arranged with health personnel to organize orientation for them in groups to ensure that they were emotionally stable before the commencement of lectures”.

“The halls and residence where twenty students used to occupy have been reduced to ten and lecture theaters which were having large figures have also been reduced by half,” the principal said.

Mr Ntaah further stated that committees that would handle residence of students, attending lectures, feeding and COVID-19 task force have been formed to monitor and ensure that students complied with the novel coronavirus protocols.

“All unauthorized routes to the school have been blocked, so our main entrance is the entry and exit point and this will help track visitors,” he added.

The principal emphasized that the academic board would continue to review their strategies with the health directorate to contain the COVID-19 pandemic.

Management would display flyers on campus to spell out the causes, symptoms and preventions of COVID-19 to caution students on the disease, he noted.

Mr Ntaah advised the final Year College of Education tutees to take their studies seriously and complete their project work on time.