Passengers who exhibit symptoms of the novel coronavirus after screening at the domestic terminal of the Kotoka International Airport will not be allowed to board flights

According to Director of the Public Health of the Ghana Health Service (GHS), Dr Badu Sarkodie, the directive is part of stringent measures to be implemented at the airports to check the spread of the virus as domestic flights resume operations later this week.

Speaking to Joy Business, Dr Badu Sarkodie said wearing of nose masks by passengers will also be compulsory.

“We will make sure that we screen the various passengers for signs and symptoms at the terminals which include checking their temperatures. We will ask if the people are coming from affected areas within the country with the use of a health declaration form because we know that internally, some areas have been identified as hot spots.

"We will trace to see if they have come into contact with any affected persons or non-confirmed cases and theses people will be closely monitored. If a person however shows symptoms such as high temperature, coughing and sneezing and we think you will pose a risk to others we will have to restrain you from going on board but this will be done upon dialogue with the Airline operators, airport operators and general information to people in the airport,” he said.

Also, according to a release by the Ghana Health Service face masks will be worn throughout the flight period and there will be no serving of food during the entire period of the flight.

All passengers will also be required to carry personal samples of hand sanitizers which will be used before embarking and disembarking the aircrafts.

Just as was done for commercial vehicles, airlines will also be required to come up with some strategy to space out passengers onboard to ensure social distancing.

Furthermore, airlines will be thoroughly cleaned under the supervision of  Port Health Staff after each trip.

Below is the new guidelines for port health services for domestic airports in Ghana.