The minister of health, Kwaku Agyemang Manu has cautioned Ghanaians as part of practice measures to prevent the contraction and spread of the novel Coronavirus avoid contact with farm and wild animals.

The minister said this while giving an update on Ghana’s case management of confirmed COVID-19 cases during the Ministry of Information Press Briefing this morning.

Stressing the need for this caution, the minister said while there has been A lot of education on other safety practices such as regular handwashing, covering the mouth and nose when sneezing or coughing, as well the observance of social distancing among others, there is the need to remind the public to abstain from coming into contact with farm and wild animals.

In parts of the world, there have been reports of animals testing positive for the virus.

On Monday, a 4-year-old female tiger in a Bronx Zoo was reported to have tested positive for the coronavirus in the United States. There have also been similar reports of other animals testing positive for the virus.

According to some reports, the 2019 Novel Coronavirus is said to have been originated from some wild animals in Wuhan in China.

Ghana as of this morning has a total case count of 287 with 5 deaths and 3 recoveries as per information on the Ghana Health Service website.