Disinfection against COVID-19 and Zoomlion
As President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has indicated, the nation will have to fight many battles in a long war to defeat the coronavirus disease (COVID-19).
There is therefore the need for all hands to be on deck since the government alone cannot fight the marauding virus.
That is the more reason we laud all collaborations between the government and private organisations to stop the spread of the disease.
Now the national conversation is on how we transition to living with COVID-19 while adhering to safety protocols which the government calls living with the new normal.
That notwithstanding, we thank all organisations which have, in one way or another, contributed so many resources — human and material — to help us deal with the global pandemic.
One of the effective ways in which we, as a country, have fought the pandemic since its outbreak has been through the disinfection of our markets, lorry parks, second and third cycle institutions, as well as corporate institutions and public areas, as instructed by the President in his earlier COVID-19 broadcasts to the nation.
The nationwide disinfection of markets, carried out in collaboration with the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development, as well as metropolitan, municipal and district assemblies, involved more than one company, but the organisations that have stood out are Zoomlion Company Limited and the National Malaria Control Programme.
Most of the disinfection exercises carried out by Zoomlion have either been subsidised in terms of cost or done at the instance of its corporate social responsibility (CSR) wing, the Vector Control Unit, at no or little cost to the beneficiaries.
The Daily Graphic lauds the Zoomlion team in particular for working tirelessly to reduce the impact of COVID-19 on the entire nation by releasing all its equipment (some seen in use for the first time in the country) for the exercise, which is still ongoing.
No doubt, the disinfection of large areas comes at great cost in terms of equipment, transport, manpower and the volumes of disinfectants used, but we equally believe that is nothing, compared to the value of human lives which we seek to protect from the COVID-19 menace.
Understandably, a section of the public is wondering how come it is mostly Zoomlion which has been at the forefront of the disinfection exercise across the country, while there are other companies which are into disinfection and vector control.
The Daily Graphic urges that as much as possible, companies such as ModerPest, Aslord Limited and AMI Services, which have taken part in recent disinfection and disinfestation of markets in the country, must also be roped in for such national exercises.
Apart from providing business for the fumigation and vector control companies, the exercise also provides an opportunity for the companies to exhibit their patriotism by offering discounts to the government as their way of supporting in the fight against COVID-19 and other vector-borne diseases in the country.
We believe that such gesture of offering services for free at some point inure to the benefit of the company offering the free service, in the long run, as it attracts more patrons or business.
The Daily Graphic, therefore, calls on all disinfection companies to join in the fight with all they have and also prove to the major stakeholder in this fight — the government — that they are, indeed, capable and have what it takes.
We also urge government agencies at the forefront of the fight against COVID-19 to involve everyone in a regular disinfection exercises that will ensure that we deal decisively with the pandemic in the country now that we are also talking about how to live a normal life after post-COVID-19.