It appears the Government of the Republic is not ready to accept back stranded students stuck in China for fear of the spread of the disease inside the country.
The Minister for Health, Kwaku Agyemang Manu has announced that the government is ever ready to ship loads of Ghanaian staple foods like “shito, gari and kenkey that can last over 2 weeks without going bad”, to the over 300 Ghanaian students who have been trapped in the Chinese province of Wuhan after the outbreak of the Coronavirus disease.
The decision of the government comes after the advice by the Ghana Health Service to the Health Ministry that shipping stranded students into the country “is not an option for now”, despite calls by the students through the China chapter of the National Union of Ghana Students for government to evacuate them from China.
Speaking in an interview on Okay FM, Mr Agyemang Manu said, “ Ayorkor (Foreign Affairs Minister) was angry that, when she sent people to buy the shito, they came back to say one bottle costs GHC 80, so she won’t buy that shito, but would personally go to market to buy some at a cheaper price; so we are thinking of them; day by day we are talking with them”.
The minister was responding to the MP for Juaboso and Ranking Member of the Health Committee of Parliament, Kwabena Minta Akandoh who had earlier said on the show that, “the decision of the government not to evacuate the students from China defied common sense”.
“We are working in collaboration with the World Health Organisation, West African Health Organisation, US Centres for Disease Control and other Development Partners, discussing and reviewing our strategies day by day. So far, all advice through consultations and engagements is not encouraging us to undertake mass evacuation because sub-regional consultation- the West African Health Organisation is engaging member states and has not recommended evacuation yet”, a statement issued by the Ministry of Health said.
Source: www.ghgossip
