Government has declared that passengers entering the country will be subjected to mandatory Covid-19 testing which will attract are $150.
Speaking at a press conference held today, the Deputy Minister for Health, Dr. Benard Oko-Boye justified the $150 fee undergoing a test. He revealed that it in fact, “nothing is more expensive than contracting Covid-19 itself”.
Comparatively, the sector deputy minister stated the amount will by no means inconvenience passengers as other countries are paying more.
“The cost of the test will not put unnecessary difficulty or burden on the passenger. We looked at what is being charged across the globe. So, when you go to a place like Zimbabwe you pay about $210 for a test. In China, you pay about $150 for a test and they are even doing PCR which is a very good test that identifies the virus itself. But in China after paying $150 you have to wait for about 6 hours average before you get results.
“Also remember that anyone coming into Ghana must have a negative PCR test and on the average, in Europe, if you enter a lab to do that, it is about 100 euros. Here at the airport, we are interested in two things; the test must be very specific and sensitize which means it must tell us if you have the virus and if it says it’s negative then you pose no threat to Ghanaians. We were also interested in how long it takes to get the results. And with these two indicators, we now had to decide whether $150 dollars of having the two most important requirements met is reasonable or not.”
Dr. Bernard Oko-Boye
Additionally, he stated that some percentage revenue generated from the testing will go into the development and maintenance of the airport.
The Managing Director of the Ghana Airports Company Limited, Yaw Kwakwa, taking his turn further explained the details and accuracy of the testing.
“It takes a maximum of 30 minutes for a particular passenger to go through the entire process and get his or her results. This system is so convenient that passengers will practically go through our terminal building with only a fraction of time added to what they used to do before”.
Mr. Kwakwa stressed that it is mandatory for any airline coming to Ghana to ensure that passengers have a face mask on.
“When you are coming from London, you will probably travel like six hours and so when you land at the KIA and you come through the passenger door and get to the edge of the terminal building, we will give you a fresh face mask. There is a service provider that we are using to do all of this. So we give you the face mask and you start going through the process. When you enter you go to the far end of the upper part of arrivals and you queue to go through the testing centre.
“But one convenience is that there is no country that you can go through the process and be able to get the results within 30 minutes and if you are negative the health professionals take over from there”.
