Former Deputy Minister for Health Dr Victor Bampoe has explained why cases of coronavirus have so far been few on the African continent.

Although more than 100,000 known cases have been recorded since the beginning of the epidemic worldwide, less than 40 cases have been recorded in Africa, including Nigeria, Senegal, Egypt, Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia.

This, the former Minister under the erstwhile Mahama administration has attributed to the poor connection between Africa and the rest of the world.

“According to experts, we get only 5% of global tourism and only 4% of China's tourists. Although Chinese workers also come to Africa, compared to numbers that go to other parts of the world, it is insignificant.”

He says this window of opportunity does not mean African countries would not be hit by the pandemic.

He believes it should rather be used to better equip and prepare health systems to better handle an outbreak.

“The virus is following economic routes. We've been given a break to prepare ourselves. Let's stop speculating why we haven't had cases yet, and continue to beef up our preps. Today corona, tomorrow something else,’ he said in a statement sighted by JoyNews.

Read his full submission below

"Its a question of economics. All we need to do is to go back to history. In 2002 - 2003, SARS entered Africa 5 months after it spread in China. South Africa was the 17th country in the world to report. No other country in Africa reported a case thereafter.

In 2009, H1N1 reached 60 countries outside of Africa before Egypt reported it's the first case two months after its initial discovery in Mexico. H1N1 eventually spread to 41 African countries.

Why? According to experts, Africa is simply less connected to the rest of the world. We get only 5% of global tourism and only 4% of China's tourists. Although Chinese workers also come to Africa, compared to numbers that go to other parts of the world, it is insignificant. In 2017, only 16% of the total number of Chinese workers that went abroad to deliver projects came to Africa, and 23% of those went to one country - Algeria.

The virus is following economic routes. We've been given a break to prepare ourselves. Let's stop speculating why we haven't had cases yet, and continue to beef up our preps.

Today corona, tomorrow something else. On the issue of how transmissible coronavirus is, the Ro ( R-zero) or the number of new people an infected person can pass the virus on to, is between 1.8 - 3.0.

When there is cold weather, people huddle together more, stay indoors more, and give the virus the opportunity to spread. In Ghana, we also do a lot of mass population activities - markets, church etc., so it can potentially still spread. Let's prepare!!"