The director of Public Health at the Ghana Health Service (GHS) Dr Badu Sarkodie says Ghanaian students locked up in virus-hit Wuhan in China should not be allowed in the country for now.

It comes as Ghanaian students on scholarship in the Wuhan area are calling on government to bring them back home as other nations have started picking up their nationals.

“If they are in the area where the virus has been detected, I will suggest we don’t permit these students to move out because that area is on lockdown in China.

“But if they are not at those areas then let’s use the various means including Immigration procedures and the various Health processes to deal with it so that it does not affect anyone,” he told Morning Starr host Francis Abban Tuesday.

He said the GHS has put adequate measures in place at the various entry points of the country to ensure that all individuals entering the country are fully screened before entry.

Additionally, he said health professionals are being trained to detect and handle any case with semblance to the virus.

The death toll from the new coronavirus now stands at 106, as cases of new infections have almost doubled in a day, Chinese authorities said.

The number of total confirmed cases in China rose to 4,515 as of 27 January, up from 2,835 a day earlier.

Travel restrictions have been tightened and wearing masks in public is now mandatory in some cities.

The city of Wuhan is at the epicentre of the outbreak but it has spread across China and internationally.

Wuhan, and the Hubei province it is located in, are already effectively in a lockdown with transport restrictions in and out of the area.

On Monday, authorities in Beijing confirmed a 50-year-old man had died – the first fatality in the Chinese capital from the virus.