President Akufo Addo has urged Ghanaians to stop the customary practice of shaking hands to avoid the spread of the deadly Coronavirus(Covid -19) disease which has so far killed several hundreds of people across the country.

“We all have a responsibility to take measures to help ourselves, recommendations are for each one of us to practice basic personal hygiene and be extra careful with sanitation. For the time being, the Ministry of Health has advised we have to revisit our custom of shaking hands and stop doing so completely. We must cover our mouths when we cough or sneeze. We should pray of cause that the Almighty continues to shield us but it is also time to pay attention to the health experts and reject all fraudulent claims of cure that will only threaten public health and safety,” President Akufo Addo said while addressing the nation during Ghana’s 63rd Independence Anniversary Celebration held at the Baba Yara Sports Stadium Kumasi in the Ashanti Region.

He also stated that non-essential trips into Ghana from countries hard-hit by Covid-19 popularly known as Coronavirus such as China, Iran, Italy are all being discouraged.

Forty suspected cases have been recorded in Ghana since the outbreak but all proven negative after laboratory tests.

More than 100,000 people have been diagnosed with the coronavirus disease globally, with at least 3,015 deaths in China and 267 fatalities in other parts of the globe, most of them in Italy and Iran.

At least 1,200 of the new infections are in Iran in just the past 24 hours, the country’s biggest jump since the outbreak began. Iran’s health ministry on Friday added that 124 people have died.