Government has announced that people arriving in Ghana from countries with 200 or more reported cases of coronavirus will not be allowed into the country.
This directive, however, does not affect Ghanaian citizens and persons with Ghana residence permits, who will be subjected to a mandatory self-quarantine of 14 days.
The directive will take effect at exactly 1 pm on Tuesday, March 17, 2020, until further notice.
24 countries will be affected by this ban. They include; Australia, Austria, Bahrain, Belgium, Canada, China, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Iran, Italy, and Japan.
Malaysia, Netherlands, Norway, Qatar, Singapore, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States will also be affected.
According to Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, the Information Minister, guidelines for self-quarantine will be available at the various ports of entry, and enforcement protocols are being deployed in collaboration with state security and health authorities to all points of entry.
Meanwhile, persons determined to be unable to satisfactorily self –quarantine will be quarantined by the state.
And the Minister assured Ghanaians that, tests for the virus will continue strongly at all entry points, and people who exhibit symptoms of COVID-19 will be quarantined upon reaching Ghana.
However, all travel to Ghana is strongly discouraged until further notice.
These directives come as part of measures to contain the spread of the COVID-19 virus in the country.
Already the country has recorded an additional four more cases, making the number of cases in the country six.
The Information Minister says in order to curb fear and panic in the country the Ministry of Health has set up a new website, http://ghanahealthservice.org/covid19/ for all updates on the outbreak of the virus in the country.
Read the advisory below:
Government’s travel advisory by myjoyonline.com on Scribd