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3 Ghanaians confirmed dead in Europe from COVID-19

Three Ghanaians have been confirmed dead in Europe from the coronavirus (COVID-19), Shirley Ayorkor Botchway, Minister for Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration has announced. 

From the three cases, two deaths were recorded in Italy and the other in Copenhagen, Denmark, though she failed to disclose their age and gender.

The Minister said this in an interview with the Parliamentary Press Corps after briefing them about measures the Ministry has taken to prevent the import and spread of the virus, especially, from notable epicentres.

She said the Consular Offices of Ghanaian missions abroad, especially, in Europe had been temporarily suspended with only emergency services being offered to Ghanaians.

Ms Botchway said the consular offices had been directed to stop issuing visas and that was why some Italians were denied entry into the country a few days ago to reinforce the directive, adding that, Ghanaians who would wish to visit their home country from any country which had recorded more than 200 cases would be compelled to self -isolate for 14-days or would be ordered into mandatory isolation by relevant authorities.

She said in order to minimise new cases from Europe which had been the main source of Ghana’s imports, some airlines had also been asked to temporary suspend their flights to Ghana.

Ms Botchway said from the brief she had from one of her counterparts in one of the epicentres in Europe, the virus was expected to peak in about two weeks before probably stabilised to begin to come down, therefore, consular staff had been advised to attend to only emergency issues while those who had completed their tour duties had also been asked to stay put in their countries for a month to be reviewed on case to case basis.

She said as part of the measures to stop the spread of the virus in the country, the Passport Office had also been directed to suspend services with only emergency cases supported by concrete evidence being allowed.

Ms Botchway used the opportunity to debunk the rumour making rounds that she could be a potential carrier of the virus since she had been filmed on social media standing close to the Norwegian Ambassador to Ghana who was one of the victims to have imported the virus into the country, saying that, it had been 21days since the event,so it was evidently clear that she had not been afflicted. 

BY LAWRENCE MARKWEI

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