Adnan Adams Mohammed
As Ghana reopen its point of entries after some months of closure due to COVID-19, arriving passengers at the Kotoka International Airport are required to take a PCR test for the virus and receive results within 15 minutes.
There will be no mandatory quarantine as well, as it has been the normal prior to the commercial opening of the ports and borders.
The government has said, over 70 sampling collection booths have been set-up at the upper level of the Arrival Hall which test passengers and results will ready between 12-15 minutes. The state-of-the-art laboratory will transmit the results electronically to the port health stations in the main arrival hall before a passenger gets there.
“We have done our best, the service providers of GACL have worked throughout the night and we are hopeful that after the simulation exercise on Friday and Saturday, we will be able to open by September 1, 2020”, Minister of Aviation, Joseph Kofi Adda disclosed during a tour of the facilities at KIA, last week, to ascertain the level of preparedness.
To this, passengers who will test negative with the PCR tests will then be cleared by Port Health to Proceed to the immigration counter and admitted into Ghana.
Passengers with positive PCR tests will be handed over by port health authorities to health professionals stationed at the facility to be transported to treatment or isolation centres.
By this arrangement, all arriving passengers who test negative will not bear the additional burden of an expensive 14-day quarantine, as has been the case with the many repatriation flights undertaken within the past few months.
Passengers are, however, expected to bear the cost of the PCR test estimated to be between GH¢200-400.
It will be recalled that the President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, tied the re-opening of Terminal 3 of the Kotoka International Airport (KIA), possibly on September 1, to the country’s ability to test each passenger upon arrival.
The Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research of the University of Ghana, therefore, began testing the efficacy of a COVID-19 Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) Detection Kit, to be deployed for testing in-bound international passengers when the airport is re-opened next month, days ago.
Also, Passengers travelling from Ghana to other parts of the world would be required to take a PCR test 72-hours prior to departure and present the negative PCR test to port health officials for verification before they are allowed to complete departure formalities.
Wearing of face mask is compulsory for all passengers except children under six years and for medical reasons-which must be proven.
