The Ministry of Health has ordered a journalist with the state broadcaster, Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC) to self-quarantine over his alleged contact with a COVID-19 patient.

The individual, who is also a student of the Ghana Institute of Journalism (GIJ) is said to have come into contact with the Norwegian Ambassador at the Norwegian Embassy after an assignment at the mission on Tuesday.

The traumatised journalist said he is living in fear because he has not been feeling well for some time now.

The student journalist explained that the Norwegian Ambassador was the only white foreigner he came into physical contact with at the embassy, took his card but fell short of a handshake.

He was also on campus last Saturday and Sunday but kept a safe distance during lectures.

“That Friday I went to Noguchi. I called Prof Abraham and told him how I was feeling. He said it is normal stress and that I shouldn’t worry. So I forgot about it, in fact, I would not have come to school,” he said.

According to the GBC intern, efforts to get a preliminary assessment by health officials have so far proven futile.

“The people conducting the contact tracing called me this evening and said they are checking up on me because I am on their list as part of people who have come into contact with persons with coronavirus and so I need to be self-isolating myself and that from tomorrow they will come and take my temperature and run some few tests on me. They said I should not go out from today,” he said.

The worried journalist says he is prepared to co-operate with the health authorities as part of measures to know his status and ac accordingly.

“They said tomorrow I will be called for another question and I said I am ready because I want to confirm who it is. If it is not the ambassador then I will forget about it and go about my normal business," he explained.

However, JoyNews checks indicate that the journalist is yet to be tested for COVID-19 as of Monday afternoon and is under self-quarantine at home.

The Director of Public Health at the Ghana Health Service on March 15, 2020, confirmed four more cases of the deadly coronavirus in the country.

This brings the total number of confirmed cases in the country to six.