In a hysterical move, the government of Ghana says it “strongly discourages” travel to Ghana for both foreigners and the Ghanaian diaspora. This is after the government confirmed four more cases of the deadly Covid-19 coronavirus.
The latest cases come barely two days after the first two official cases in Ghana were announced on Thursday March 13, 2020.
At a rare press conference held today Sunday, March 15, 2020, at the Ministry of Information, the Minister Kojo Oppong Nkrumah readout Ghana’s riot-act which included forcing all passengers travelling to Ghana from countries with more than 200 cases to mandatory quarantine.
Also, airlines have been instructed to not to allow persons from countries with over 200 cases of COVID-19 into Ghana.
“The government of Ghana is issuing a travelling advisory this afternoon and these are as follows; first, all travel to Ghana is at this stage strongly discouraged until further notice, secondly, any traveller except with Ghanaian citizen and persons with a resident permit who within the last 14 days has been to a country that has recorded at least 200 cases of the coronavirus will not be permitted into the Ghanaian jurisdiction. Airlines are instructed not to allow such persons to embark and border posts are instructed not to allow such persons into the country,” the Minister stated.
“There will now be a mandatory 14 days self-quarantine for persons who are otherwise allowed to enter the Ghanaian jurisdiction. Guidelines for the self-quarantine will be available at the various Ghanaian port of entry,” he added.
Critics are of the opinion that this step should have been taken long ago before the incidence of Covid-19 escalated to the current level in the country.
In the face of the raging coronavirus since December 2019, the government had been reluctant to initiate travel restrictions to hard-hit China.
After extensive public agitation, President Akufo Addo took a tour of the Kotoka International Airport (KIA) to assess the supposed fool-proof gate-keeper measures the airport authority claim they had initiated, including boosting their thermal scanners and deploying thermometers to check travellers.
After the Tour, the President assured the country that Ghana was fully prepared to snip any potential “import” before it leaves the KIA.
However, the six confirmed cases announced today and last Thursday shows that the so-called preparedness had failed woefully because all the patients sneaked in undetected through the KIA.