Coronavirus cases recorded at Kotoka International Airport up by 87 percent

Imported cases of COVID-19 detected by screening all arriving passengers at the Kotoka International Airport (KIA) has gone up by 87 percent, increasing from 92 to 172 between mid-October and November 6, 2020.

President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo in his 19th address on measures taken to combat coronavirus noted that: “With the imposition of stringent testing measures at the airport, we have, so far, been able to detect one hundred and seventy-two (172) positive cases amongst some fifty-four thousand (54,000) arriving international passengers.

“The airport authorities will continue to demand that passengers arriving in the country should be in possession of a seventy-two (72)-hour old negative PCR test, and we will continue to sanction airlines that flout this directive.

“The health authorities will intensify the follow up process of arriving passengers, even when they have tested negative to help ensure we have ruled out any possible infection that may have occurred during the period of embarkation and disembarkation.”

With the number of daily infections increasing from an average of twenty-five (25) new cases per day then, to an average of over one hundred and thirty (130) new cases per day in the course of the last two weeks, Ghana’s active case count has almost tripled within the period.

As at November 6, active COVID-19 cases had increased from 398 to 1,139.

“An analysis of the active case data suggests that the Greater Accra Region accounts for some seventy-five percent (75%), with Ashanti, Bono, Eastern and Western being responsible for sixteen percent (16%) of active cases. The remaining eleven (11) Regions make up four percent (4%) of the cases, with arrivals at Kotoka International Airport responsible for the other five percent (5%),” President Akufo-Addo said in his 19th address to the nation,” President Akufo-Addo added.

Ghana on September 1, 2020 opened its air space for international flights and instituted a compulsory testing regime upon arrival for all international passengers at a cost of US$150

As at mid-October, a total of 30,564 in-coming passengers had been tested, out of which 92 tested positive.

Background

As part of preparations towards the opening of the Kotoka International Airport for the resumption of international airline operations, government mandated all arriving passengers to take an Antigen test at any of the over 70 sampling collection booths set-up at the upper level of the Arrival Hall of the Kotoka International Airport and results ready between 12-15 minutes.

A state-of-the-art laboratory, set-up at the upper level of the Arrival Hall to process the samples, then transmits the results electronically to the port health stations in the main arrival hall before a passenger gets there.

All passengers with negative Antigen tests are then be cleared by Port Health to proceed to the immigration counter and admitted into Ghana.

Passengers with positive Antigen tests are 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