There's no scientific evidence that African blood genetics resists coronavirus - Virologist

A virologist Prof William Ampofo says reports that suggest that African blood genetics resists coronavirus can't be scientifically proven.

There is a certain conspiracy that black people are less susceptible to the coronavirus

Ever since the coronavirus started spreading, Africa has not recorded a higher number of cases as compared to countries in Europe and Asia.

Prof Addo advised people to do away with this information and observed all precautionary measures to ensure they do not contract the virus.

Ghana yesterday confirmed its first two cases of the coronavirus, one a Ghanaian citizen who works in Turkey and returned to Ghana and the other is a Norwegian citizen.

"Populations can be susceptible to different diseases, but currently there is no scientific proof that black blood genetics resist the virus. Let's not jump to that conclusion or else people's attitude may change and they will not observe all the measures", he told Joy FM.

After Ghana confirmed its first two cases, the Minister for Health, Mr Kwaku Agyeman-Manu says the government will work assiduously to contain the coronavirus in Ghana.

The novel coronavirus, officially known as COVID-19 was first detected in Wuhan, China last December and has spread to at least 114 countries.

The global death toll is now over 4,600, with more than 124,500 confirmed cases, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), which has declared the outbreak a pandemic.

Here are the confirmed cases in Africa as of Wednesday

Algeria -- 20

Burkina Faso -- 2

Cameroon -- 2

Democratic Republic of Congo --1

Egypt -- 59 (includes 1 death)

Morocco -- 3 (includes 1 death)

Nigeria -- 2

Senegal -- 4

South Africa -- 13

Tunisia -- 5

Togo -- 1

Ghana -- 2

Source: ghanaweb.com