The resumption of the proceedings of the election petition with the hearing of a motion filed by the petitioner, former President John Dramani Mahama, by the Supreme Court and the report that the COVID-19 Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of the Greater Accra Regional Hospital, Ridge, is running out of oxygen are some of the trending stories in the Ghanaian press on Wednesday.
The Graphic reports that the Supreme Court will Wednesday resume the proceedings of the election petition with the hearing of a motion filed by the petitioner, former President John Dramani Mahama which is seeking to inspect some documents of the Electoral Commission (EC).
A determination by the apex court on the motion will determine whether lawyers for the petitioner would call another witness or not.
The motion, which was filed at the apex court Tuesday, is asking the apex court to grant the petitioner permission to inspect some documents of the EC.
The documents include the originals of the constituency presidential election result collation forms (form 9) for all constituencies, the originals of all constituency presidential election results summary sheet (form 10) and the originals of the regional presidential election collation forms (form 11) for all regions.
The others are the team is asking for the originals of the regional presidential election results summary sheets (form 12) for all regions and the original declaration of the presidential results form (form 13) and the records of the alleged update to the purported declaration of presidential election results on 9th December 2020, of the results of four (4) constituencies in the Greater Accra Region.
Although lawyers for the petitioner had indicated during pretrial that they would be calling five witnesses, only two have filed their witness statements and have been duly cross-examined by counsels for the respondents.
The newspaper says that the Ghana Heath Service (GHS) says it has identified a wide community spread of the mutated United Kingdom (UK) variant of the COVID-19 that can take over the traditional one if the public continues to defy the safety protocols.
It said that was a cause for worry because the UK variant had a higher and faster rate of spread, results in severer sickness, with high numbers of people exposed to it falling sick, unlike the traditional form of the virus
Addressing the media at the Minister’s Briefing, a national platform for providing updates on the national COVID-19 situation and response, in Accra yesterday, the Director-General of the GHS, Dr. Patrick Kuma-Aboagye, reiterated the need for the public to enhance adherence to the safety protocols.
He said although the service had put in place measures to contain the spread of the new variant, the desired result of breaking the transmission could not be achieved if members of the public refused to wear their face masks and strictly adhere to all the other safety protocols.
He mentioned some of the measures as enhanced contact tracing, testing and treatment.
“We must continue to adhere to hand and respiratory hygiene. Always cough into a face mask, flexed elbow or a tissue and dispose of it immediately into a closed bin and wash or sanitise your hands immediately. We must also observe between one and two metres of social distancing protocols at all times,” he said.
The Graphic also reports that the COVID-19 Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of the Greater Accra Regional Hospital, Ridge, is running out of oxygen.
This is as a result of the increasing number of critical care and severe cases of COVID-19 reporting at the Facility.
Dr. Emmanuel Ahiable, the COVID-19 Case Management Lead at the Hospital, told the Ghana News Agency (GNA) in an Interview that critical care beds at the Unit had been occupied since January 08, 2021, with high demand for oxygen.
Consequently, the Centre is said to be in urgent need of higher volumes of oxygen as each patient at the ICU requires 15 litres of oxygen per minute, with patients staying on oxygen for at least two weeks.
Dr Ahiable said the situation had been alarming since the beginning of 2021 because more cases referred to the facility were in critical conditions.
He said after January 8, the Unit had had to expand its eight-bed facility to 16, as it received more referrals from across the Greater Accra Region.
As at February 01, when the GNA visited the facility, 15 out of the 16 critical care beds were occupied.
The Times says that the Food and Drugs Authority (FDA), and the National Medicine Regulatory Agency (NMRA) have approved a herbal medicine Cryptolepis Sanguinolenta, locally known as Nibima for clinical trial as a potential treatment for coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in January 2021.
According to the FDA, in search of a treatment for the COVID-19 pandemic, a research team from the School of Public Health at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) submitted a clinical trial application in September 2020 to assess the safety and efficacy of Cryptolepis Sanguinolenta as a potential treatment for COVID-19.
This was contained in a press release signed and issued by the Chief Executive Officer of the FDA, Mrs Delese Darko, who said the trial followed a result from laboratory studies conducted by the KNUST research team which points in the direction of possible clinical benefits.
She said the FDA Ghana is listed as a World Health Organisation (WHO) “Maturity Level 3” Regulatory Agency, the Second country in WHO Africa Region to attain this level in the four-tier WHO classification of National Medicines Regulatory Systems.
“This level, the second within this classification, indicates that Ghana’s medicine regulatory system is well functioning and integrates all required elements to guarantee its stable performance thereby ensuring safety, quality and efficacy of all medicinal products imported, exported, manufactured or distributed in the country, including regulation of the conduct of clinical trials,” she added.
The CEO stated that the FDA, after detailed assessment of the application, gave requisite regulatory authorisation for the conduct of the trial per the mandate outlined under part 8 (section 150-166)of the Public Health Act 2012 (Act 851), which gives the Authority the legal mandate to regulate clinical trials of drugs, herbal medicines products, cosmetics or medical devices.
She said the trial would be conducted at two sites.
GIK/APA