Coronavirus: I pray it doesn’t happen in Ghana – GUTA Secretary

General Secretary of the Ghana Union of Traders Association (GUTA), Alpha Shaban, has expressed hope that the fast spreading coronavirus does not affect the country.

Alpha Shaban was of the view that the outbreak of the disease will destabilize the country adding that traders doing businesses in China will hugely be affected.

“I would pray that it doesn’t happen,” a hopeful Alpha Shaban told GhanaWeb.

He expressed that the Ministry of Health and the Ghana Health Service would put in the necessary measures to make sure the disease does not spread rampantly should there be people affected.

On whether he was aware of the number of Ghanaian businessmen and women in China following the outbreak of the coronavirus in the Asian country, he responded in the negative stating that it is not an ordinary issue for GUTA to ascertain but the Ministry of Health and the Ghana Health Service.

“We currently do not have statistics of Ghanaians who are there. On the other hand, this is not an issue for ordinary people. That is a total issue for the Ministry of health. So they have to put in the necessary measures to make sure that it doesn’t affect the country.”

Meanwhile, there has been a report on suspected cases of the coronavirus involving two foreign nationals – a Chinese and an Argentian – at the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital.

The cases were detected on Wednesday, February 5, 2020.

The patients who have been in Ghana for a while now have been isolated at the facility while blood samples taken have been sent to the Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research (NMIMR), for further analysis.