Public
tertiary institutions across Ghana will reopen later than expected for
the commencement of the new academic year due to the Ebola scare, Deputy
Minister of Education Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa said here on Tuesday.
Speaking on an Accra-based radio station,
Ablakwa said that the decision was to ensure effective virus screening
was in place before foreign students travelling from affected West
African countries, including Nigeria, Liberia and Sierra Leone, arrived
in the country.
He said: “It is very likely that reopening of
all tertiary institutions will be postponed while the inter-ministerial
task force put in place measures to avert any such case.
“We looked at the possibility of students
coming from the affected countries in the sub-region and how we can put
in place screening mechanisms to ensure that these students have not
contracted the deadly Ebola virus and that they are not coming to spread
the virus on our campuses.”
He said the closure would continue until surveillance and screening at entry border points had been strengthened.
The deputy minister also hinted that the
Ghanaian government was going to put a freeze on international
conferences and public gatherings.
He assured the public that the
inter-ministerial committee set up by the government and health
institutions were ready and on high alert to handle any outbreak and
prevent the spread of the deadly virus.
The Ebola virus has so far claimed more than
1,000 lives, with about 1,800 people infected in Liberia, Guinea, Sierra
Leone and Nigeria since the outbreak of the disease in February.
The current outbreak, the worst ever, has
spread to other countries such as Nigeria in recent months and is
transmitted among humans through bodily fluids.
In Ghana, a total of 37 suspected cases have been evaluated and all have proven negative.
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