The presidential directive slashing coronavirus test fees by a third for ECOWAS nationals will start on February 8, 2021.
This is according to a client service personnel at Frontier Healthcare Service, the company contracted to undertake the tests.
Asked via telephone when the $50 per test directive for ECOWAS nationals had kicked off, an official who gave her name as Marigold told GhanaWeb: "Not yet, 8th of February."
Since Ghana started testing for the virus last year, the cost per test had been pegged at US$150 for all passengers arriving in the country and those exiting.
Government refused to reduce the cost despite comparative figures showing that Ghana's fees were above the global average. In his 23rd coronavirus address, president Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo disclosed that the fee had been revised downward per an ECOWAS heads of state resolution.
He did not state when the new fee took effect but clarified that it applied to only ECOWAS nationals arriving in the country.
What the president said about tests fees and isolation in his address:
COVID-19 tests are free for all Ghanaians at public health institutions. If a Ghanaian citizen returns a positive result, the cost of care at isolation and treatment centres will be borne by Government.
At the 58th Summit of the Authority of ECOWAS Heads of State and Government, held virtually, it was agreed that the cost of the COVID test for in-bound ECOWAS nationals be pegged at fifty United States dollars ($50) at the Kotoka International Airport.
The cost of the test for non-ECOWAS nationals still remains one hundred and fifty ($150) dollars. ECOWAS nationals and travelers, who test positive, will bear the cost of the mandatory isolation and treatment.
