Avoid COVID-19 high-risk countries - Moontouch Travel CEO Cautions

The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Moontouch Travel Limited, a travel agency in Ghana, Ms. Radia Adama Saani, has advised the government against the admission of foreigners from high-risk Corona countries into Ghana.

Ghana government has announced the opening of Kotoka International Airport effective today 1st September 2020 to both passengers and businesses.

The move according to the government is to bring back social and economic activities that had been halted when the only international airport operating in the country had to be on lockdown following the outbreak.

The closure was to curtail the spread of the virus in the country.

She lauded the government for setting up good safety protocols in preparing the airport for the re-opening especially with the introduction of rapid mandatory COVID-19 PCR test for all passengers upon their arrival in Ghana which takes between 15- 25mins.

She, however, explained that allowing nationals COVID-19 affected countries into Ghana, could put the citizens in danger and the country could probably reverse the gains made in the fight against the pandemic.

"After an impressive fight against the pandemic by the Government and citizens which has yielded an improved reduction of COVID-19 cases in the country, it will be dangerous to allow people from COVID-19 affected countries to enter Ghana", she said.

COVID 19 restrictions 

The latest global COVID 19 data indicates a number of 25,318, 261 worldwide cases are still ongoing with a number of new daily cases of 261,790 and total death of 845,800 according to JHU CSSE data as at 31st August 2020.

Speaking in an interview, the Tourism & Aviation industry Professional noted that, just as the government is taking gradual steps in easing the COVID 19 restrictions in Education and other sectors of the national economy, the same method should be applied to the aviation sector.

She added that a special precautionary step must be taken against the wholesale admission of foreigners into the country.

She indicated that countries around the globe that have already opened their airports still observe some restrictions to the top six (6) most affected countries notably: the USA, Brazil, Russia, India Mexico, and Spain.

She revealed that the breakdown of statistics made available indicates that many countries especially the advanced ones still battle with the virus and the high rate of spread could still be looming.

"When you look at countries who have already opened their airports for tourists, such as China, Kuwait, UAE, Canada, Egypt, Switzerland, Saudi Arabia, and many others, there are aviation restrictions from certain countries and airlines".

 Best measures 

In considering the best measures required to defeat the virus, Radia Adama Saani, the Aviation Professional, advised that only Ghanaian citizens arriving from the above mentioned red flag Corona affected countries should be accepted into Ghana but with negative COVID 19 test certificate dated not more than 5 days prior to the departure date and they will undergo an additional PCR test again on the date of arrival.

This same method has been very effective in Dubai Airport and some others.

Also, passengers should temporarily be discouraged from travelling into the country with pets especially dogs.

"Ghana must reflect on how the virus found its way into the country and not complicate our current improved situation" She added.

"We have to be extremely cautious in carrying out this exercise. We must carefully examine COVID-19 countries with high risk and consider the appropriate measures to take instead of treating all nationals equal upon their arrival" she submitted.