The government of Ghana has strongly cautioned travellers against coming into the country following the outbreak of the novel Coronavirus in the country.
Four more cases have been recorded in Ghana bringing the total number of confirmed cases to six.
This was made known by the Minister for Information, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah when he addressed the media on Sunday, March 15, 2019.
“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.”
Cases confirmed on 13th March 2020
The Director of Public Health at Ghana Health Service, Dr Badu Sarkodie said on Friday, 13th March 2020 two more cases were confirmed as COVID-19.
They reported in two regions. One each from Ashanti Region and the other in the Greater Accra Region.
“The first is a 56-year old man, a Ghanaian who returned from a trip to the UK on the 4th of March. He stayed in UK for 10 days and came back. He developed symptoms on the 12th of March and reported to a hospital in Obuasi. The case definition met the case of that of suspected COVID-19. Samples were taken and sent to the Kumasi Centre for Collaborative Research in Tropical Medicine (KCCR) and within a short time, the lab reported that this is another confirmed case of COVID-19 within the country.”
“The second is a woman, a Ghanaian student. She travelled out to the USA. Stayed there for about 10 days. She came back on the 9th of March and on the 13th of March, started having symptoms…Samples were taken to Noguchi on 13th and the same day we had a report from Noguchi that confirmed this as another case of COVID-19,” Dr, Badu Sarkodie.
Both patients have been isolated and are being treated, he added.
151 contacts have been traced to 4 cases so far – Dr. Badu Sarkodie
A total number of 151 contacts have been traced to four individuals who have been confirmed with the novel coronavirus in Ghana.
Dr. Badu Sarkodie said this at the press briefing held on Sunday.
“First four cases, contact tracing has started. We just confirmed the last two cases over the night and we have started mechanisms to identify the contacts. With case 1, we have identified two contacts and all the contacts are being traced. With case 2, the Norwegian, we have identified 107 contacts and we have started processes to follow up on 68 of them. We will be in touch with the rest by the close of today,” Dr. Sarkodie added.
How to protect yourself
To prevent the spread, the standard recommendations coming from the WHO is regular hand washing, covering one’s mouth and nose when coughing and sneezing, thoroughly cooking meat and eggs.
People are also advised to avoid close contact with anyone showing symptoms of respiratory illness such as coughing and sneezing.
