Accra, Jan.19, GNA – The Minster for Health Mr Kwaku Agyeman-Manu has announced a revised de-isolation and discharge guidelines for international arrivals at the Kotoka International Airport (KIA).
The Minister, who was speaking at the Minister’s Press Briefing in Accra on Wednesday, said under the revised guidelines, Ghanaians and Resident Foreigners who were partially vaccinated or unvaccinated on arrival would be exempted from full vaccinations before traveling to Ghana.
“As part of the implementation challenges of the testing and isolation policy at the KIA, it was recommended that Ghanaians who were partially vaccinated or unvaccinated be exempted from the directive requiring full vaccination of passengers travelling to Ghana and be vaccinated on or quarantined mandatorily on arrival,” he said.
Mr Agyeman-Manu said the exempted persons would, however, be offered vaccination on arrival and passengers who failed to receive a jab on arrival would undergo mandatory quarantine for seven days at their own cost.
“This means that the issue of an unvaccinated Ghanaian being denied entry and a resident unvaccinated foreigner allowed in will change and all unvaccinated persons would have to be vaccinated on arrival.”
He said under the updated policy for international arrivals, all other cases would be considered on case-by-case basis, thus those who were sick and could not be vaccinated would still be exempted.
He said similarly, home care management teams would be strengthened to ensure strict compliance with the COVID-19 home management protocols by eligible person.
” We are currently doing a check list to ensure that those who test positive at the Airport and can self-isolate be allowed to do so,” he said.
The Minister stated that for all patients on home isolation, de-isolation would be seven days after testing positive and all hospitalised patients without symptoms will de-isolate ten days after testing positive.
In cases of high or moderate risk exposure to someone infected with COVID-19; the affected person will stay at home or self-quarantine until five days and if symptoms develop, the person will be tested for COVID-19.
Mr Agyeman- Manu said passengers who arrived with negative test result could resume normal activities on the fifth day of arrival and those who tested positive would be isolated for seven days.
He said Ghana was experiencing a fourth wave with the detection of the Omicron variant but there had been a significant reduction in active cases in the last two weeks with a relatively low proportion in severe and critical cases.
“As a country, we encountered a lot of challenges in managing COVID-19 but despite all these challenges, we achieved much and bring the situation under control.”
GNA