Health Minister, Kwaku Agyeman Manu on Wednesday briefed Parliament for the second time within a month over the preparedness of the country to deal with the Coronavirus outbreak.
Coronavirus has claimed several lives worldwide with confirmed cases in Senegal and Nigeria in the West African sub-region.
Per Ghana’s preparedness plan, the state claims to have developed messages and education materials on the virus though they do not appear to be in circulation.
The plan also said radio and television discussions and engagements on the outbreak and Ghana’s preparedness activities have been started and are ongoing but these too are not in mainstream media.
In an address delivered by the health minister, Kwaku Agyemang Manu mentioned that the number of cases sharply increased from 20,604 cases as of 4th February 2020, to 90,604 cases as of 4th February 2020, to 90,302 as of 2nd march 2020 with 3,085 deaths.
In line with the world health organization’s recommendations to member states to prepare and prevent further international spread of the outbreak by strengthening systems for the containment including active surveillance, early detection, isolation, case contact management, Hon Kweku Agyemang Manu outlined the preparedness and response actions being triggered in Ghana.
The Ghana Health Service is also said to be in the processes of shoring up Ghana’s surveillance efforts at points of entry.
At the moment, Ghana’s 14 approved entry routes are manned by health workers monitoring human traffic. As far as Ghana’s points of entry are concerned, the state has held stakeholder engagements with the Ghana Airport Company limited management and the Kotoka International Airport, Ghana Immigration Service, Customs Division of the Ghana Revenue Authority, Tema Port to strengthen surveillance systems
