COVID-19: Airlines to pay $3,500 fine for each positive passenger they fly in
-Ghana is experiencing a worrying surge in daily infections
-This has led to the heightening of the country’s COVID-19 safety protocols
-As a result, GAC also issued some new changes or updates to its guidelines
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Ghana’s sudden spike in COVID-19 cases has forced the management of the Ghana Airports Company (GAC) to issue new guidelines for airlines flying into the country.
Per the guidelines, airlines are expected to sternly adhere to the COVID-19 safety protocols.
Source: Getty Images
Only passengers with a negative COVID-19 PCR test result from an accredited laboratory from the country of origin can be flown into the country.
Failure to do so will attract a fine of US$3,500 per passenger, the management of GAC stated in the latest guidelines sighted by YEN.com.gh and is expected to come into effect from February 8, 2021.
All arriving passengers who test positive for COVID-19 will also undergo mandatory isolation and treatment at a cost to passengers, with the exception of Ghanaian citizens.
The isolation will be for seven days, and final discharge of cases will be based on existing case management guidelines and protocols.
Again, passengers who arrive under emergency circumstances such as diverted flights will not be required to undergo testing if they do not leave the airport or remain in isolation in their hotel.
Meanwhile, the Ghana Pentecostal and Charismatic Council described as illogical calls for church services to be banned in the wake of the increasing active COVID-19 cases in the country.
According to the Council’s General Secretary, Rev Emmanuel Barigah, there is no data to show that people “come to church and contract the virus.”
“If there’s one place people observe the protocols strictly, it’s the church,” he told Accra-based Starr FM in an interview on Tuesday, January 2, 2021, monitored by YEN.com.gh.
Also, YEN.com.gh earlier reported that a herbal medicine, Cryptolepis sanguinolenta, was approved for a clinical trial in Ghana for the treatment of COVID-19.
Known locally as ‘Nibima’, Cryptolepis sanguinolenta's approval for the trial was announced on Monday, February 1, 2021, by the Food and Drugs Authority (FDA).
Ghana recorded its first case of the virus on March 12, 2020, from two people who arrived in the country—a Ghanaian and a Norwegian national.
The country has since the inception of January witnessed an astronomical surge in case count.
Active cases stand at 5,515. So far, 416 people have died from the deadly contagion with 170 and 44 persons in severe and critical conditions respectively.
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Source: YEN.com.gh
