Coronavirus: Ghana is putting measures in place to reduce risk of contact- GHS

 
Director of Public Health at Ghana Health Service, Dr. Badu Sarkodie, says Ghana Health Service (GHS) is putting measures in place to ensure that the deadly virus, Coronavirus, does not enter Ghana.
Health officials say the new virus is a coronavirus, which is a family of viruses that include the common cold, and viruses such as SARS and MERS.
Coronaviruses are common in many different species of animals, including camels and bats. Rarely, these coronaviruses can evolve and infect humans and then spread between humans, recent examples of this include SARS-CoV and MERS-CoV.
Until 2019 most coronaviruses infect animals, but not people.
In an interview with host of Atinka FM’s AM Drive, Director of Public Health at Ghana Health Service, Dr. Badu Sarkodie, explained that hos outfit has been informed of a suspected case of coronavirus in Ivory Coast which was reportedly announced by the country’s health ministry.
He added that the virus was reported to have entered Ivory Coast after an unnamed student returned to the West African country from Beijing on Saturday.
He, however added that the said student is undergoing further tests after showing flu-like symptoms.
Asked the kind of measures being put in place to protect Ghana from being at risk, Dr. Badu Sarkodie noted that the country has intensified the screening of persons travelling into the country especially from countries which have been affected by the virus.
“We have intensified screening at all points of entries of the country, we have also given health declaration forms to persons coming into the country. Persons travelling into the country from affected countries will also be monitored for more than 2 weeks to monitor progress,’ he added
He cautioned Ghanaians who travel to do business in China and affected countries to be cautious and if possible wait for health officials to declare the areas free of the virus before travelling to those countries.
Ghana | Atinkaonline.com | Vivian Adu Boatemaa