Coronavirus: We haven’t abandoned students in China: Gov’t to Minority

Government has dismissed claims by the Minority in Parliament that it has abandoned Ghanaian students in China over the outbreak of the deadly coronavirus.

Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister, Habib Tijani, said government has released $250,000 to assist the students in the purchase of nose masks and other essentials to protect them in an epidemic that has killed over 1,000 worldwide.

The Minority had given government a three-day ultimatum to evacuate the distressed students back home.

Coronavirus: Minority gives gov’t 3-day ultimatum to evacuate Ghanaian students in Wuhan

The three-day ultimatum is expected to elapse on Friday.

They argue that it is unfortunate that President Akufo-Addo has remained quiet on the desperate plight of Ghanaian students in China while his administration seems unmoved by the distress calls for evacuation.

Minority spokesperson on Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa in a media briefing on Tuesday, accused government of shirking its responsibility by not evacuating the students.

According to him, countries like Libya, France, Switzerland, Philippines, Russia, among others have evacuated their citizens yet, government has refused to do same for Ghanaians.

“Countries have reviewed their interventions and moved in to even do multiple rounds of evacuation. Ghana cannot continue to pussyfoot,” he said.

But the Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister, Habib Tijani, has denied the allegations.

He said government had released $250,000 to its embassy in China to assist students in Wuhan and Hubei provinces, the epicenter of the outbreak.

“We are also working closely with them to ensure that these sums of money take care of the essentials such as nose masks, toiletries and other things that will be very helpful to those at the epicenter,” he added.

Despite the financial support from government, the students have said the money is of no essence if shops continue to remain shut with no transport services in the city.

Coronavirus: ‘Do you want us to die before you evacuate us?’ – Ghanaian students in Wuhan beg again

So far over 1000 lives have been lost with more than 42,000 cases recorded since the outbreak of the deadly Covid-19 (formerly known as Coronavirus) in December 2019.

Background

Ghanaian students in Wuhan, China have made numerous appeals to government to evacuate them back home over fears of being infected with the virus.

Ghanaian students in China demand evacuation back home over outbreak of coronavirus

Their request was shot down by the Director of Public Health at the Ghana Health Service (GHS), Dr. Badu Sarkodie.

According to him, evacuating the students would have dire consequences on the country since they are based in the epicenter of the slaughtering epidemic.

Coronavirus: Don’t evacuate Ghanaian students in Wuhan back home – GHS