President Akufo-Addo has revealed that with the imposition of stringent testing measures at the Kotoka International Airport (KIA), the country has detected one hundred and seventy-two (172) positive cases amongst some fifty-four thousand (54,000) arriving international passengers.
According to him, the airport authorities will continue to demand that passengers arriving in the country must have a seventy-two (72)-hour old negative PCR test, adding Airlines who go against the directive will be dealt with.
In his 19th address to the nation on measures put in place to fight the spread of coronavirus in the country, he said “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’
He stressed that in the area of testing, he has tasked the Ministry of Health, through the Ghana Health Service, to liaise with all laboratories and testing facilities across the country to ensure that reporting procedures are ironed out and adhered to.
“In as much as our hospitalization rates are very low, care for the sick and the provision of treatment remain an important aspect of our strategy. To this end, the one hundred-bed Ghana Infectious Diseases Centre, located at the Ga East Hospital, will be opened in the next few days, under the management of the Ghana Health Service” he added.
President Akufo-Addo further explained that the provision of adequate medicines, equipment, and personal protective equipment to enable health workers to attend to home-based patients has also been guaranteed.
Story by: Joshua Kwabena Smith