Airlines which flout PCR testing for coronavirus will be sanctioned - Akufo-Addo

President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo on Sunday said airlines which flout the directive for Polymerized Chain Reaction (PCR) testing for COVID-19 will be sanctioned.

"The airport authorities will continue to demand that passengers arriving in the country should be in possession of a 72-hour old negative PCR test, and we will continue to sanction airlines that flout this directive," President Akufo-Addo said in his 19th update on Ghana's enhanced response to the COVID-19 Pandemic.

"With the imposition of stringent testing measures at the airport, we have, so far, been able to detect 172 positive cases amongst some 54,000 arriving international passengers."

He noted that the health authorities would intensify the follow up process of arriving passengers, even when they had tested negative to help ensure we have ruled out any possible infection that might have occurred during the period of embarkation and disembarkation.

"In the area of testing, I have tasked the Ministry of Health, through the Ghana Health Service (GHS), to liaise with all laboratories and testing facilities across the country to ensure that reporting procedures are ironed out and adhered to," he said.

"In as much as our hospitalisation rates are very low, care for the sick and the provision of treatment remain an important aspect of our strategy."

He said to this end, the one hundred-bed Ghana Infectious Diseases Centre, located at the Ga East Hospital, would be opened in the next few days, under the management of the GHS.

The President said the provision of adequate medicines, equipment, and personal protective equipment to enable health workers attend to home-based patients had also been guaranteed.

He said the Government, in trying to mitigate against the effects of the pandemic, had put in place a number of measures to cushion ordinary Ghanaians and businesses.

He said the Government had extended the policy of free access to water for all households across the country until December, as well as fully absorbing electricity bills for one million active lifeline customers for the same period.

President Akufo-Addo said the Communication Service Tax had also been reduced from nine per cent to five per cent, effective September.