COVID-19: Fully vaccinated travellers will not be tested on arrival in Ghana
President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has announced that from today, Monday, March 28, 2022, fully vaccinated travellers coming to Ghana will not take PCR tests from their countries of origin to allow them entry into the Kotoka International Airport (KIA) where they will also not be tested for COVID-19 on arrival.
However, the President mentioned that citizens and foreign residents in Ghana, who are not fully vaccinated, would need to provide a negative PCR test result of not more than 48-hours and undergo an antigen test upon arrival at the KIA where they will be offered vaccination.
It is worth noting that the establishment of the COVID-19 testing infrastructure at the Kotoka International Airport by Frontier Healthcare Services Ltd, at its own cost, has been key to our ability to limit successfully the importation of the virus into Ghana through the airport,” the President said in an address to the nation on Sunday evening.
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The efficacy of the testing regime at KIA has won global admiration, and has been applauded by all those who have undergone its testing. It has been one of the reasons why Ghana was not at the receiving end of several of the travel bans imposed by the West at the height of the pandemic, for which many African countries were affected”.
Criticism of testing cost
The testing regime at Ghana’s airport which costs $150 for a COVID-19 test has been criticised by the minority in Parliament.
Addressing the press recently, the Minority Leader, Haruna Iddrisu expressed concern over what he described as the ‘fleecing and rip-off’ of Ghanaians and international travellers coming to Ghana in the name of COVID-19 charges at the KIA by Frontiers Health Services.
Those charges, he said, must be reviewed by the government as nowhere in the world did anyone pay $150 for a COVID-19 test.
“I was in Doha, Qatar and Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa returned from Romania and the least you pay for a COVID-19 test is $50 and most probably the highest would be $100, so it is questionable for non-Ghanaians to be compelled to continue to pay $150 in the name of COVID-19 test and raises questions of us using COVID-19 as a money-making enterprise instead of a public pandemic that needs our collective effort to combat and deal with,” he said.
What is it that we cannot do for our own citizens who want to return to Ghana to contribute to the social and economic of our country?” the Minority leader asked.
Iddrisu said he would lead the Minority to come up with a motion, supported mainly by the MP for North Tongu, Ablakwa, and the MP for Juaboso, Kwabena Mintah Akandoh, to demand accountability on charges by Frontiers Health Services at KIA.
They are trying to even hide the number of international travellers to our borders. What they do not know is that under the country’s laws this is official information that must be given to us so that we can compute how much we have made charging the $150,” he said.
