Arriving flight passengers at the Kotoka International Airport (KIA) have been directed by government to self-isolate for 10 days even after testing negative for the Covid-19 virus at the airport.
The directive contained in a joint press release by the Ghana Health Service (GHS) and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, is to toughen initial guidelines setup by government to control the importation of the virus through the nation’s premier airport.
Arriving passengers who test negative at the airport, the statement further asserts, will undergo a second Covid-19 test on the third day of their arrival in the country.
The statement also advised Ghanaians to cancel travels to countries with high Covid-19 infection rate to avoid contracting the virus and ultimately bringing it back into the country.
“In view of the alarming rate of infections of COVID-19 in some parts of the world, especially in Asia and South America, the Ghana Health Service wishes to advise the general public to either cancel or postpone all nonessential travels to counties with exceedingly high COVID -19 infection rate.”
Less than a week ago, Frontier Health Services – the health service provider mandated to test arriving passengers at KIA – in a letter to the Ghana Airport Company Limited (GACL), warned of the alarming increment in recorded cases of the Covid-19 virus among foreigners arriving at the Kotoka International Airport (KIA).
According to Fontier Health Services (FHS), positive recorded cases of Covid-19 on April 21, was 45 but jumped by 30 cases within three days with recorded new positive cases totaling 75 on April 24.
FHS in the letter appealed to GACL and government to as a matter of urgency implement stringent measures on the quality of PCR test results acceptable for entry into the country.
Adding new guidelines must be implemented at KIA by the government to curtail the influx of positive cases into the country.
Read below details of the press release: