Gov’t Stops Travelers Over COVID19 …UG Suspends Lectures

The government has asked travellers to stay away from Ghana following the outbreak of the Coronavirus in the country.

So far four more cases have been recorded in the country bringing the total number of confirmed cases to six barely a week after the report of the first case.

This was contained in a statement issued in Accra yesterday by Minister for Information, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah.

“The government of Ghana is issuing a travelling advisory this afternoon and these are as follows; first, all travel to Ghana is at this stage strongly discouraged until further notice, secondly, any traveller except with Ghanaian citizen and persons with a resident permit who within the last 14 days has been to a country that has recorded at least 200 cases of the coronavirus will not be permitted into the Ghanaian jurisdiction. Airlines are instructed not to allow such persons to embark and border posts are instructed not to allow such persons into the country.”

The statement follows a press conference by the Director of Public Health at the Ghana Health Service, Dr Badu Sarkodie to announce the new developments.

He said these new cases like the previous two were imported into the county.

Giving a breakdown of the new cases, Dr Sarkodie said on Friday, March 13, 2020, the Ashanti and Greater Accra Regions recorded two new cases.

One, a 56-year-old Ghanaian male who returned from a UK trip on March 4, reported himself to a health facility eight days after developing symptoms similar to that of COVID-19.

Samples were taken to the Centre for Collaborative Research in Tropical Medicine and tested. The results were positive.

The second is a female student at the University of Ghana who travelled to the US. She was in that country for 10 days and returned on March 9.

She started showing symptoms on March 12 and reported to a health facility in Accra.

Her samples were taken to the Noguchi Memorial Institute of Medical Research where tests returned positive.

She is also receiving treatment at an undisclosed facility and is in a stable condition.

A 42-year-old man is the third patient. Dr Sakordie said he travelled to Switzerland and the UK and returned to Ghana on March 9.

He reported to the health facility on March 14 after showing symptoms. Samples, again, were taken to Noguchi were they returned positive.

The final case is also a 41-year-old Ghanaian who travelled to Turkey and Germany in the last 14 days, Dr Sarkodie indicated.

He reported himself to the Tema General Hospital where samples were taken and sent to Noguchi. The results were positive.

According to Dr Sarkodie, none of the cases was picked up at the country’s entry points because the patients showed no signs then.

Meanwhile, the University of Ghana has suspended all academic activities with immediate effect.

A statement signed by the Registrar of the school said students and staff who reside outside its “campuses and are currently off-campus should keep away from the campuses until they are asked to return.”

This follows an announcement by Prof. Ebenezer Oduro Owusu, the Vice-Chancellor of the University, that one out of the four new confirmed cases in the country is a student there.

He had in an earlier announcement directed all non-resident students to stay away from the campus as the institution recorded one COVID-19 case.

As at press time yesterday sources at the Ghana Institutes of Journalism (GIJ) said the management of the school were also locked up in a crunch meeting over the next line of action

The deadly virus has spread to over 60 countries across all continents except Antarctica.