The President Nana Akufo Addo has announced that from today, Monday, fully vaccinated travellers into Ghana will not take PCR tests from the country of embarkation to allow them entry into the country through the KIA, and will not be tested on arrival. Citizens and foreign residents in Ghana, who are not fully vaccinated, would, however, need to provide a negative PCR test result of not more than 48-hours, will undergo an antigen test upon arrival at KIA, and will be offered vaccination there. Ghana’s Foreign Missions have been instructed to make vaccination a requirement for visa acquisition.

The President made this known when he gave his update No. 28 on measures taken by the Government against the spread of the novel, Coronavirus.

Akufo Addo, lauded the establishment of the COVID-19 testing infrastructure at the Kotoka International Airport by Frontier Healthcare Services Ltd. According to the the President, the efficacy of the testing regime at KIA has won global admiration.

” It is worth noting that the establishment of the COVID-19 testing infrastructure at the Kotoka International Airport by Frontier Healthcare Services Ltd, at its own cost, has been key to our ability to limit successfully the importation of the virus into Ghana through the airport. The efficacy of the testing regime at KIA has won global admiration, and has been applauded by all those who have undergone its testing. It has been one of the reasons why Ghana was not at the receiving end of several of the travel bans imposed by the West at the height of the pandemic, for which many African countries were affected” He said.

Prior to the President’s announcement on the removal of mandatory  $50 COVID-19 testing at the airport, the Minority in Parliament were agitated about COVID-19 testing services at the Kotoka International Airport by the Frontiers Healthcare Solution Services Limited.

Thus, planned a demonstration at the Kotoka International Airport if the mandatory COVID-19 testing at the airport is not made free.

“Nowhere in the world does anybody pay US$150 for a COVID-19 test. For non-Ghanaians to be compelled to pay US$150 in the name of COVID-19 test; which COVID-19 test arrangements and procurement is questionable, and raises questions about us using COVID-19 for excuse as money-making enterprise instead of public health epidemic… , we do not think that persons travelling to Ghana from abroad must be made to pay US$150. We consider that a rip-off, prohibitively high” the Minority Leader said.

In Mr. Haruna Iddrisu’s view, testing for Ghanaian passport holders at the airport needed to be free of charge