Author: Hannah Tiwaa Banor
One can be ready and prepared enough for a guest who announces the time of their arrival and is easily recognizable. But could any country really be ready for a respiratory virus with high transmissibility, dynamic in nature, whose symptoms are non-specific, and its nature is not entirely understood by the scientific community? The answers to these questions remain a mystery to be unraveled.
At the beginning of 2020, I was full of excitement and expectation as a new medical officer starting her career at the maternity department of the Catholic Hospital in Battor, of the Volta Region of Ghana. This hospital has a renowned obstetrics and gynecology unit and attracts patients across the country. This was my first time of moving out of the city to reside and work in a rural area. Despite being anxious about this move, my desire to serve was enough driving force for me to be excited about my new posting and work. I was welcomed nicely into the system, there were abundance of personal protective equipment to work with and work was moving on smoothly though the hospital has its own setbacks. However, these were all short lived as the advent of the COVID-19 changed everything.