A Ghanaian junior minister resigned on Friday for failing to self-isolate after testing positive for coronavirus, the presidency said.

Deputy Minister of Trade and Industry Carlos Kingsley Ahenkorah’s resignation has been accepted by President Nana Akufo-Addo with “immediate effect”, his office said in a statement.

“This follows the admission by the deputy minister of his breach of the COVID-19 protocols, when, as a person certified to be positive of the virus, he visited a registration centre in his constituency before the period of self-isolation was complete,” it said.

The presidency said that the minister ought to have led by example rather than violate self-isolation protocols.

The embattled minister told AFP that as an asymptomatic patient he was not a major threat to other people.

“I have COVID-19, but I’m asymptomatic. There is nothing shameful in catching COVID. I never got in the midst of people at the registration centre. I spoke to a few people at the centre and left,” Ahenkorah added.

The authorities in Ghana have introduced a raft of measures, including self-isolation, lockdown, mask-wearing and social distancing to curb the spread of the virus.

The disease has so far infected more than 18,000 people and claimed 117 lives in the West African nation. (AFP)