Coronavirus: Ghana & Gabon suspend foreign trips for officials, MPs

In Ghana and Gabon, public officials and MPs have been temporarily banned from travelling out of their countries in measures to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.

According to a statement issued by the office of Ghana’s President Nana Akufo-Addo, only essential and critical trips by public officials would be considered and approved.

In Gabon, the parliamentary speaker Faustin Boukoubi has suspended all foreign trips by MPs.

In a memo sent to legislators the speaker said all travel on behalf of the assembly had been suspended until further notice. There are no confirmed cases of coronavirus in Ghana or Gabon.

Ghana’s neighbors, Burkina Faso and Togo have both recorded positive cases of the virus.

Ghana’s Ministry of Health has secured funds to help prepare and contain the outbreak of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19).

According to the Ministry, it is still in talks with the Finance Ministry to get more resources. The government is setting up a 100-bed capacity facility in a remote area to serve as a center for quarantining persons with suspected coronavirus infection.

Gabon closed its borders with neighboring Cameroon where two cases of coronavirus have been confirmed.

Health authorities in the Democratic Republic of Congo have confirmed the first case of coronavirus in the country in the capital, Kinsasha.

The central African nation is now the seventh sub-Saharan country to confirm a case of coronavirus.

The global outbreak, which originated from China, has infected at least 121,739 people and caused the death of 4,382 people according to the World Health Organization.