A political spokesperson for the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Akosua Manu, has justified subjecting arriving passengers at the airport to a PCR Covid-19 mandatory test.
She said it was necessary even though they might have been tested in their home countries prior to their travel.
This came after a video went viral of two foreigners who had earlier tested negative to the virus in their respective countries, but the test carried out at the Kotoka International Airport came out positive.
The two went furious at their test results questioning the credibility of the medical team at the Airport.
A former Deputy Minister for Health, Dr. Bernard Oko-Boye has said that there were instances where travelers who tested positive at the KIA, later fell sick despite testing negative to PCR tests in their home countries.
He condemned the false sense of superiority displayed by the persons in the video, insisting Ghana is a sovereign nation and has what it takes to carry out an impeccable medical exercise.
Buttressing Okoe-Boye’s stance, Akosua Manu established on Metro TV’s Good Morning Ghana “I think Dr. Okoboe responded to it brilliantly and he answered all the questions. When we decided to test and then isolate passengers largely, there was a hue and cry about passengers who wanted to break the protocol and leave. This video is not too different.”
“There was a young man who said he wanted to leave and that he is not positive and people were quite angry because Covid we all know it came through our borders and internationally too,” she stressed.
She expressed surprise at the behavior of the two foreigners stating that the practice is internationally recognized.
“It’s quite interesting that people are reacting the way they are because they feel that if I start a journey and am negative, it shouldn’t be that when I arrive, I am positive.”
“One of the two women tested positive and has since been in isolation. I cross-checked from a friend who came back from the UK recently. Before he went to the UK, he had to pay for mandatory testing. He said “I got there last Saturday. Even before getting there, I had to pay for mandatory day ‘2’ and day ‘8’ test.”
She added “Now in the UK, you can opt for five-day quarantine if you do the test and it shows you are negative. Now each costs you not less than 140pounds notwithstanding I had a negative PCR taken a day before flying in Accra
Additionally, all passengers except for those from green sworn countries mandatorily has to do a ten-day quarantine.”
