The Minority members on the Health Committee in parliament have called on government to consider placing temporary ban on flights from COVID-19 hotspot countries as a matter of urgency until the situation in those areas improve.
They, however, commended government for implementing some additional measures to deal with the pandemic including compulsory PCR testing on the third day after arriving in the country for travelers from COVID-19 hotspots; and ensuring that they self-isolate for ten days after arriving.
According to them the third wave of COVID-19 infections have been running rampant in several parts of the world with India as the worst hit country at the moment.
Ranking Member on health, Kwabena Minta Akandoh addressing the media in Parliament on Sunday, May 2, 2021 noted that antigen test are effective when patient viral loads are high as indicated by the America’s CDC, and the antigen Ghana depends on at its airport has a propensity to yield some false negatives, reducing its reliability as an effective screen against SARS-CoV-2.
Due to this, some jurisdiction use real-time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) test in order to detect patients with early exposures to COVID-19 to improve on the speed of testing.
“Ghana may therefore have imported cases of the virus which were not detected via the antigen tests at the airport putting the entire nation at risk, and incumbent on government to increase testing and provide protective equipment for immigration officials in order to control the spread of the virus within the general population”.
The Minority urged government as a matter of urgency to formulate and submit copies to parliament, antigen policy for implementation in the next few days.
And further noted that, there is no current protocol with regards to ship crew arriving at the countries sea ports. There are no recommended antigen or PCR test for individuals considering the fact that COVID spreads in confined spaces and some of the crew may have stayed for weeks in close quarters with others who may be infected.
“Government must as a matter of urgency institute a COVID-19 testing policy for ship crews in order to ensure the general safety of Ghanaians, and further call on government to expedite action on the procurement and deployment of vaccines across the country as earlier promised”.
Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/Ghanamps.com
