Ghana has been selected to pioneer the deployment of the PANABIOS platform, an initiative under the African Union’s (AU) Open Corridors Initiative and the Africa Centre for Disease Control’s (CDC) Saving Lives, Economies and Livelihoods program.

Communications Minister, Ursula Owusu made this known at the launch of the Ghana Covid-19 app upgrade at the Kofi Annan Centre of Excellence (AITI-KACE).

According to her, the updated Ghana Covid-19 Tracker app and PANABIOS will ensure a unified, national, digital strategy to manage the nation’s response to Covid-19 using technology.

She said: “Using technology, we will build an economy which is safe and creates an environment of collaboration where everyone contributes to reduce the infection rate”.

The introduction of the PANABIOS platform is geared towards minimizing the risk of a second wave of infections amidst the gradual easing of restrictions in the country.

The Minister stated that the PANABIOS platform was used by the Electoral Commission during the just ended voters' registration exercise to reduce congestion and facilitate social distancing after the initial hiccups.

The introduction of the Ghana Covid-19 app and now PANABIOS is part of government’s initiative to “utilise technology to transform the current Covid-19 crisis into an opportunity to build resilience into critical national structures and to create a digital shield, leveraging on existing systems.”

She says for government to ensure that these digital interventions work effectively in mitigating the spread of the virus, several measures have been taken.

These measures include “Working with our diplomatic missions to ensure that Covid-19 tests taken at most, 72 hours prior to travellers arriving in Ghana, can be securely verified on PANABIOS, thereby reducing the risk of COVID-positive passengers arriving in the country in the first place.”

According to the Minister, when this is done it will prevent travellers from declaring fake results at the airport thus reducing the risk of endangering the citizens should the person be positive.

Secondly, there will be digital tracking and monitoring of all tests performed on arrival for biosecurity planning to enable the relevant health and security authorities to continually monitor the trend of positives and negatives and consequently adjust the country’s entry protocols accordingly.

Thirdly, there will be “digital surveillance of all meetings, conferences and exhibitions conducted at hotels convention centres and other potential Covid-19 infection and transmission hotspots.”

This according to the Minister will proactively identify potential spikes and facilitate interventions before runaway infection spread can commence.

Also, there will be an electronic validation of all vaccination cards, including yellow fever cards, as well as supply chain and adverse reactions monitoring, in anticipation of the eventual release and distribution of a Covid-19 vaccine.

“We cannot cut corners and corrupt the system from its inception as some have done with the yellow fever vaccine card acquisition, and only technology provides the means to weed out quacks and cheats,” Ursula Owusu said.

Finally, government intends to digitally monitor and properly and efficiently validate rapid diagnostic tests “to prevent fraud, gaming, and evasion as the government embarks on preventive bio-screening as a means of keeping the pandemic and future epidemics under control".

The Communications Minister finally urged all incoming passengers to download the app upon arrival at the Kotoka International Airport.

"With the opening up the air-space by the President, we will encourage all incoming passengers to download the app upon arrival at the Kotoka International Airport," she said.

“We encourage all of you to download or reinstall the app or access the *769# USSD code and follow the prompts. It will take you an average of two minutes to complete,” she said.

The GHCOVID-19 Symptoms Tracker is available on AppStore and Play store portals, (iOS, Android) while PANABIOS is available for easy download at www.panabios.org