A Medical Research Fellow at the Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research, Dr Joseph Kofi Bonnie, has disclosed health experts in Ghana are now studying Chinese literature to help understand the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) which has been declared a global pandemic by the World Health Organisation (WHO).

Ghana has so far recorded 19 confirmed cases with over 600 people identified to have come into contact with the infected person, a situation Dr. Bonnie observed could be critical in the coming days.

He acknowledged the challenge experts around the globe and that of Ghana face is their inability to fully understand the virus.

Speaking on TV3’s Saturday Morning Show, The Key Points, Dr. Bonnie disclosed they rely heavily on China for information because of its experiences.

“It’s a new virus and we know very little about them and we are now reading a lot of literature from China mainly because it is a credible source; they have published peer review documents backed with experience”, he said.

“We know it’s a respiratory infection and so the basic things are known but then every now and then we get new information on how this new virus is behaving”, he added

He has advised that the public takes the precautionary measures of social distancing and personal hygiene seriously while experts work to understand the behavior of the virus.