The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has shut down its local office in Accra
Although no staff of the fund has been infested, the closure of the IMF office is only meant to test its ability to manage the coronavirus pandemic.
Due to this, staff in the office are expected to work remotely, relying on technology from Friday 13th of March.
Sources close to the IMF say working via virtual platforms is part of several simulation mechanisms to understand the situation should any of its staff be “infected”.
The source adds that this it is to ensure that their operations in the country do not grind to a halt should the coronavirus get out of hand in the country.
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Ghana’s first case
Ghana confirmed its first cases of coronavirus on Thursday, becoming the tenth country in sub-Saharan Africa to register positive cases.
Ghana’s Health Ministry said the two cases involved people who had returned recently from Norway and Turkey.
“These are imported cases of COVID-19. Both patients are currently being kept in isolation and are stable,” the ministry said in a statement.
WHO
The World Health Organization (WHO) has declared Covid-19 a pandemic, because of its rapid spread and global impact.
WHO chief Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said it was now using the term because of deep concern over “alarming levels of inaction” over the virus.
A pandemic is used to describe an infectious disease with a significant and ongoing person-to-person spread in multiple countries around the world at the same time.
Globally, there have been 134,511 cases recorded and at least 4,970 deaths.
