The Ghana Health Service has reviewed COVID-19 protocols at the Kotoka International Airport (KIA) ahead of the Christmas festivities.
It has thus cautioned citizens not to let their guard down during the yuletide in order not to increase COVID cases in the country.
The Ghana Health Service concerns come on the back of increasing cases of COVID-19 around the world.
“People in other countries who normally travel to this country are also experiencing numerical surges. The risks we face with Christmas are on. Gatherings, our practices, the fact that we are going to have a lot of people come to the country, yes, of course, there is also the potential for a new variant just like we had toward last Christmas when we had the “Omicron variant”. So, we also have to look at that as a risk factor so we need to be alert,” the GHS cautioned during a press conference.
The Director-General of the Ghana Health Service, Patrick Kuma Aboagye who addressed the media urged Ghanaians to help sustain the improvement the country has made so far in the fight against COVID.
“We need to make sure that we sustain the gains made so far so that we don’t go back to where we were many months ago. I talked about some countries; we selected those countries because we tend to get the signal number of visitors from those places especially during Christmas.
“You can see that in the last 28 days, Japan has recorded about 3.2million cases, the US 1.57 cases, France 1.49 cases, China almost a million, Italy 0.85 cases and Germany. So, like I said these are places where we also get a signal number of visitors so that poses a risk for us,” Mr. Kuma Aboagye added.
The Ghana Health Service boss however assured the service preparedness to contain an upsurge.
“Let me give you a few updates, there have been a few changes I want to mention. All passengers Ghanaians and non-Ghanaians residents 18 years and above arriving in Ghana will be required to provide evidence of full vaccination of the COVID-19. As well as vaccines at the booking point and upon arrival at the Kotoka International Airport,” he added.
Source: Ghana/Starrfm.com.gh/103.5FM/Bernice Mensah
