Mandatory Screening For All Arrivals Through KIA

Passengers entering the country through the Kotoka International Airport (KIA) are required to undergo mandatory screening as the Ghana Airport Company Limited (GACL) takes steps to prevent the spread of the Ebola disease into Ghana. The GACL is expected to take delivery of a walk-through screening equipment from South Africa to beef up its capacity to keep the dreadful disease at bay. An official of the GACL, Mr Felix A. Amoah, who made this known yesterday, pleaded with passengers to bear with the company for the inconvenience that would be caused during the exercise. He was briefing the Minister of Transportation, Ms Dzifa Ativor, who had visited the KIA to inspect ongoing expansion works at the airport. Screening Mr Amoah, who is a coordinator on Ebola matters at the KIA, said a screening machine had been installed at the Arrival Hall and that it could detect any passenger with a temperature beyond the normal level. He said passengers were required to fill forms indicating their addresses during their stay in Ghana so that they could be contacted subsequently if the need arose. Mr Amoah said passengers who showed symptoms of Ebola would be quarantined at the airport before being transferred to an Ebola Centre created at a destination opposite the Hajj Village for further tests, He added that if the Ebola suspicion was strengthened, the passenger would then be moved to the government designated health facility for further action. �So it is not true that people come into the country through the Kotoka International Airport and they are not screened,� he said, adding that airlines that flew from Ebola-stricken countries directly to Ghana, such as Arik, Delta and Kenya Airways, had cancelled their flights. �As we speak now, we don�t have passengers coming directly from these countries into Ghana. But for the sake of safety and security of our citizens, all these measures are being put in place to ensure that if there is anything of this nature, Ghana Airport Company and the nation are prepared to take it up from that point,� he said. Phase 1 of the airport expansion project involves renovation works at the Arrival Hall and new immigration booths in a manner that will make the KIA more spacious. The Chief Engineer of Amandi, the engineering company executing the project, Mr David Ben Ayun, briefed the transport minister on the project. Ms Ativor expressed satisfaction with the work done so far, saying, �I think they are on course to deliver on the first phase�.