Former Deputy Health Minister Victor Bampoe has lauded the Akufo-Addo government’s allocation of $100million to combat the novel coronavirus.

Speaking to Kojo Yankson on the Super Morning Show on Joy FM Friday, he said the injection of cash notwithstanding, authorities must put in place measures to upgrade the entire health system.

Dr Bampoe said there is the need to train specialists, for example, to man the equipment like ventilators that may be procured to fight the COVID-19.

“Health systems are not built overnight,” he said, adding we do not expect the $100 million to turn overnight to the kind of people we need to operate the ventilators.

He further argued that the health authorities must not wait for such communicable diseases before moving to fix gaps in the sector.

These kinds of outbreaks would always come around, he said citing Ebola, SASS and H1N1, hence the need to be in perpetual preparation for them.

Dr Bampoe’s comments come following the confirmation of two cases of the coronavirus pandemic in Ghana.

The Health Minister, Kweku Agyeman-Manu said in a live broadcast on Thursday that the cases are “imported” from Turkey and Norway.

Information Minister Kojo Oppong Nkrumah later added on Friday that the patients have been in the country for a week.

The authorities have called for calm, adding the two persons have been isolated.

Social media users have meanwhile been reacting to the announcement with the hashtag CloseBordersNow gaining much traction on Twitter.