COVID-19: Opening Ghana’s air borders after 2nd wave ‘not risky’ – Okoe Boye

Deputy Minister of Health, Okoe Boye has justified the decision to keep Ghana’s air borders open in the wake of a second wave of COVID-19 in some parts of the world.

There is a resurgence in COVID-19 cases in countries across Europe after a successful slow down of the outbreak early in the year.

More countries are declaring more cases in recent times, following the second wave.

Ghana’s air borders were opened on September 1, 2020, allowing Ghanaians and other persons living in other countries to fly to Ghana.

Speaking on The Point of View on Citi TV, Dr. Okoe Boye said, keeping the country’s air borders opened despite a second wave is not risky since travellers arriving from those countries are tested before settling in Ghana.

“It is not surprising to those experiencing the second wave based on the weather patterns. People like Fauci, CDC boss, predicted that it is very likely that when the weather gets cold, we might experience another wave so this climate theory is quite significant. And let me say that for us as a country, it is absolutely important that we are doing a test that is supposed to identify the virus to pick an active person and not just determine exposure.”

“That is why I am comforted in the fact that even if we are having second waves across the world, with our international airports open, once we are doing this test to identify the virus, we can significantly reduce the virus. Once we are firm on the testing, and we do not allow any compromise with an asymptomatic person who has subjected himself to two antigen tests, we are safe.”

Consistency in testing

Dr. Boye also dismissed suggestions that Ghana was recording low COVID-19 cases due to a decline in testing.

He explained that the mortality rate would have been higher in Ghana if there was a decline in COVID-19 tests.

“I have always mentioned that if a country deliberately runs away from testing as a way of keeping its numbers low, it is easy to find out by looking at the mortality rate. If you do not test, the mortality rate will be higher. Ghana has consistently maintained the mortality from 0.5 to 0.6 so it tells you that there is a level of consistency.”

More than 30,000 passengers who travelled by flight into Ghana have undergone COVID-19 testing following the reopening of the Kotoka International Airport six weeks ago.

This was disclosed by President Nana Akufo-Addo during his 18th update on the country’s enhanced response to the pandemic on Sunday, October 18, 2020.

Source: citinewsroom