All individuals who travelled into Ghana on or after March 3, 2020 are to be identified and tested for COVID-19, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has directed.
Information Minister and Member of Parliament for Ofoase Ayirebi, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, who confirmed the directive, said the President wanted all those individuals to be tested as was done with arrivals on Saturday night.
“The Ghana Immigration Service, working with the Ministry of Communication and their agencies has a whole database of all these persons who came in,” he said, adding that some had been quarantined for two weeks without any signs of the disease.
Mr Oppong Nkrumah was speaking to journalists at the Parliament House, in Accra.
He said President Akufo-Addo directed that the tracking began from March 3, against an original proposed date of March 15 by some government officials.
As part of measures to contain the outbreak of the coronavirus in Ghana, the Government last Saturday began quarantining all passengers disembarking at the Kotoka International Airport (KIA).
After the checks, passengers were sent to different hotels to begin a 14-day quarantine.
Out of the latest update of 132 cases, 78 are from persons in mandatory quarantine. Those persons were not allowed into the general population and treatment has commenced.
According to the Ghana Health Serviceealth jhEA, the sudden increase in reported cases was as a result of the mandatory quarantine and compulsory testing for all travellers entering Ghana.
The majority of the confirmed cases are Ghanaians, who returned home from affected countries, while seven are nationals from: Norway, Lebanon, China, Netherlands, and the United Kingdom (UK).
The number of confirmed cases of travellers under mandatory quarantine is 78.
Mr Oppong Nkrumah gave the assurance that the President would ensure that the nation did not run the risk of significant communal spread of the disease.
Source: GNA
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I USED THE KOTOKA INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT ON 13TH MARCH AND 15TH MARCH ie IN N OUT BUT THE ONLY THING IMMIGRATION DID WAS, THEY CHECK MY TEMPERATURE N THAT WAS ALL. FORMS WAS SHARED TO US ON BOARD AT COUTONOU FROM GHANA MINISTRY OF HEALTH THINKING THEY WILL DO THOROUGH CHECK BUT NOTHING OF THAT SORT HAPPENED.
My guess is that ashanti region will top the coronavirus because that is the place Ghana organized first mass gathering in the form of independence day parade at a 50,000 capacity stadium. the event was politicized in a party's strong hold. Officials who were likely suspects should have been prevented from attending such an important ceremony, yet it was kept as secret. Lockdown should start from Ashanti region then gradually to other regions. Also any big man/woman at the function who has tested positive should come out openly to encourage other citizens to voluntarily come out and request for test. Let's not stigmatized for God's sake. '
That is where i have a problem. Why 3rd March? The virus is spreading and the people you want to trace now if the have it , then they would have already spread it an one can imagine the multiplicity of the spread by now. That is why it is important to lockdown in my view, so that a complete nationwide test is done on each person house to house by experts. You are taking about 3rd march 2020, what about february? January? December, November? The epidemic started in China around November and one can imagine how many Ghanaians had travel to and from China since then. By now The Government should be thinking about out buffer food stock. Do we have enough food, Water supply, Power supply and health facilities.