President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has announced that government has set aside an insurance cover to cushion health officials at the forefront of Ghana’s fight against the novel Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in the country.

He said, an insurance package, with an assured sum of three hundred and fifty thousand cedis (GH¢350,000) for each health personnel and allied professional at the forefront of the fight, has been put in place.

The President said this during his latest address to the nation on Sunday, April 5, 2020. He also disclosed that a daily allowance of GHC150 is being paid to the contact tracers helping the Ghana Health Service in tracing and testing people who might have come into contact with some infected persons.

The Health Ministry had earlier announced that the insurance cover would benefit about 10,000 health personnel and allied professionals attending to COVID-19 pandemic response.

In a letter addressed by the Sector Minister, Kwaku Agyemang to all heads of the agencies within the sector, the government indicated that frontline staff involved in the COVID-19 response have been insured under benefits such as Group life cover

Those who will attend to patients with critical illness have been assured a sum of GHS 25,000 per life, while those who will treat persons with any form of disability had been pegged at GHS 10,000 per life.

Nine new COVID-19 cases confirmed in Ghana increased the country’s case count to 214 on Sunday, April 5, 2020.

Six of the cases were confirmed in the Greater Accra Region while the remaining three were recorded in the Ashanti Region.

One of the patients who contracted the disease in the Greater Accra region, a 37-year-old woman, had no travel history; neither did she have any contact with another confirmed case.

In the Ashanti Region, one of the three new patients also had no travel history and had not come into contact with any of the already confirmed cases.