The world has in the past few weeks been confronted with a disease; coronavirus with no known cure.

The disease which has spread from China to many parts of the world reportedly has killed more than 400 people.

There are frantic efforts around the world to find a cure as well as to prevent the disease from spreading and there is a lockdown at the Hubei Province, the epicentre of the outbreak.

In the Wuhan city where the outbreak began, more than 11 million people are under strict restrictions in terms of moving about.

In spite of efforts to contain the virus, it has now been estimated to have killed more than 560 people and infected 28,000 in China alone.

Health experts say the disease causes severe acute respiratory infection and symptoms usually start with a fever, followed by a dry cough.

According to them, most people infected are likely to fully recover.

In an effort to contain the outbreak, the Chinese authorities have taken a number of measures including asking citizens to wear face masks.

It says what China needs urgently is face masks which is in short supply due to the huge demand across China.

Many countries including South Korea, United States and Britain have responded and supplied several millions of face masks to China in response to the appeal.

Although there have been reports of shortages in countries outside China because of panic buying, as fears grow about the global spread of the virus, Ghana through the Greater Accra Regional Coordinating Council has donated 10,000 boxes of nose masks to residents of Wuhan city to support efforts at preventing the spread of the coronavirus.

According to the Greater Accra Regional Minister, Mr Ishmael Ashitey, the donation is to support the Chinese people in their effort to deal with the disease.

We support the gesture extended to a friendly country in this difficult time.

The Chinese government and the people have been generous to Ghanaians in our challenging times and therefore, deserve our support and sympathy in these trying times.

While commending the Regional Minister for the timely and generous donation, the Ghanaian Times would like to urge him to stock some of the face masks for future use by Ghanaians.

There is a Ghanaian proverb that says that “when you see your neighbour’s beard on fire, you protect yours with water”.

In other words, we must prepare for the coronavirus since there is no known cure for it.