Gov’t killing school rats to prevent hantavirus outbreak after coronavirus

The government of Ghana is fumigating schools across the country to kill rats, mice and other rodents who transmit diseases so as to avert an outbreak of the hantavirus and other diseases after dealing with the coronavirus which has, so far, killed eight of the 614 confirmed cases in Ghana.

The Minister of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation, Prof Kwabena Frimpong Boateng said the ongoing fumigation exercise in senior high schools is a proactive and precautionary measure.

Already, the government has disinfected hundreds of markets across the country since the coronavirus pandemic hit Ghana.

Speaking to journalists during an inspection tour of Prempeh College in Kumasi, Prof Frimpong Boateng said the fumigation exercise “is a fight against disease”, adding: “bedbugs also bring disease and the other rodents, the rats and mice and so on”.

“Some of you have heard that after the coronavirus infection in China, there’s another infection called the hantavirus that is also spread by rodents – mice, rats and so on.

“So, the President, in his wisdom, has combined these two so that after coronavirus infection, we’re not going to get hantavirus infection”, Prof Frimpong Boateng noted, adding: “So, this is a very important exercise”.