We’re monitoring passengers at KIA to prevent importation of COVID-19 – Nsiah-Asare

Government says it will continue to diligently test and vigorously monitor persons entering the country especially from countries with a high incidence of COVID-19.

Pressure is mounting on the government to outrightly ban travels into the country from all such countries following Nigeria's ban on travels to and from India, Turkey and Brazil due to their high incidence of the virus.

But, Presidential Advisor on Health, Dr. Anthony Nsiah-Asare tells Citi News that the Government of Ghana will continue to play by its most recent travel advisory while observing the situation.

He said the government will introduce new measures if it finds the need to, however it is currently satisfied by the work of Ghana's Embassies and High Commissions in ensuring that only people who test negative for COVID-19 are allowed to come into Ghana.

“The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has issued a travel advisory to all citizens and all our Embassies and High Commissions. We are following the situation critically, and luckily we have put in a place a lot of measures since September 1, 2020. We will continue looking at our protocols and make sure that anybody who is coming into the country is screened, tested and if found positive, is isolated and retested before the person is left to go home. And those coming from those countries with high cases will be looked at swiftly. So the Embassies and High Commission are working very well, and we are hoping that this will go a very long way to limit any importation into the country,” Dr. Nsiah-Asare said.

Recently, Frontiers Health Services, managers of Ghana's COVID-19 airport testing programme issued an alert over a seeming rise in the number of positive COVID-19 cases coming into the country.

The company in a letter to the Managing Director of Ghana Airports Company Limited, Yaw Kwakwa said it recorded the highest daily number of positive COVID-19 cases at the airport on Saturday, April 24, 2021.

According to the company, the rate of positive cases being recorded at the airport in recent times is “unprecedented.”

—citinewsroom