Combating Covid-19: Aviation Ministry, Zoomlion collaborate to disinfect Ghana airports monthly

The General Manager of Vector Control Services, a unit of Zoomlion Ghana Limited, Rev. Ebenezer Kwame Addae has revealed plans are far advanced to disinfect Ghana airports every month, which began December 2020.

The initiative is part of government’s efforts to get the entry points of the country safe from the Coronavirus pandemic.

Rev. Addae made the revelation during the disinfection of the Kotoka International Airport (KIA), Thursday, January 14, 2020.

The monthly exercise, according to the Vectopest Manager, is a collaboration between the Ministry of Aviation and the waste management giants, Zoomlion Ghana Limited.

“The Ministry of Aviation has taken further steps to engage with us so that we can take this on a monthly basis so that we don’t give chance for any eventuality at all,” he noted.

Additionally, he stated “it has become necessary for us to reinforce the disinfection exercise looking at the new wave of Covid-19” adding the commencement of the exercise was imperative but the end very crucial, “therefore we have decided not to relent on our efforts, but to go ahead to ensure that the success that we have chopped would be maintained.”

Also, he averred even though the Ghana Airports Authority has measures in place to curb the spread of the virus, Vectopest have gone to augment what is being done already, as disinfection is the first step of combating the pandemic.

Considering the fatality rate of the virus in the Western world, Rev. Addae believes a lower middle income country like Ghana should not allow the pandemic to get out of control to drain its scarce resources.

Stressing on the fact that Ghana embraced the pandemic through the KIA, he assured they are not going to “leave any stone unturned” so far as ridding Ghana off the virus is concerned.

Touching on the applied disinfectants, he explained the current chemicals have higher residual activity — meaning it takes a longer period to lose its potency.

“If you do one day, it can take us almost 26 to 30 days. That’s why we are using this different kind of disinfectant to be able to face the new wave of this Covid-19 which is changing itself day-in day-out and as it change, we must also strategise to see how we’ll be able to combat,” he emphasised.

The Kumasi, Takoradi and Tamale Airports he noted are also going to be disinfected.

Let alone, Rev. Addae assured the public of the human friendliness of the disinfectant, hence, posing no threat to human health.

“It is not combustible, it doesn’t corrode items so we have a lot of ingredients which suppresses the corrosive aspect of the initial chemical that we used when there was a total lockdown. So this one is friendly, we can do it and as we finish, activities can go ahead,” he allayed fears.