President Nana Akufo Addo has said government will evacuate Ghanaians students from China if the need arises.
Following the outbreak of the Coronavirus, there have been calls from the Minority, the China chapter of National Union of Ghana Students (NUGS) and parents to evacuate Ghanaian students from the country.
The Minority Caucus in Parliament a few days ago gave Government a three-day ultimatum to evacuate Ghanaians living in China in the midst of the ravaging coronavirus.
The caucus said it is unfathomable that President Akufo-Addo had remained quiet on the matter since the outbreak while his administration seemed unmoved by the distress calls of particularly Ghanaian students in China.
The Caucus said it was equally minded by the available WHO protocols on evacuations and will insist those protocols are followed in the evacuation process.
The President in response to these calls said the government will evacuate students from China if other options aimed at confining the disease to the area of origin fails.
He made this known while delivering the 2020 State of the Nation Address in Parliament on Thursday, February 20, 2020.
“The government is in constant touch with experts on the subject who have advised that the basic principle of public health is to confine the disease to the area of origin but we have not ruled out the option of evacuating the students from Wuhan if that becomes necessary.”
“We have put in place measures to ensure that if the evacuation happens, it will not lead to the dissemination of fear and panic amongst the general population, ” the President said.
Gov’t offers support to students in China
President Nana Akufo Addo said since the outbreak of the Coronavirus, the government through its mission had also “supplied logistics [to the students] and the embassy has given so far 500 dollars to each student.”
“However, we know that no amount of logistics will make up for the extreme stress and trauma that these young people are going through,” the President added.
He said the Chinese government had also offered its support to students since the outbreak.
