Ranking Member on the Health Committee of Parliament, Kwabena Mintah Akandoh, is demanding the immediate scrapping of the Covid-19 testing at the Kotoka International Airport (KIA).

In an interview with JoyNews on Wednesday, Mr Akandoh stated that the testing at KIA has been turned into a cash cow, hence, the call for it to be scrapped.

“Within the sub-region, there is no country that charges $150 per an antigen test, not a PCR test. If you go to countries like Togo, Burkina Faso, Togo is charging $50, Burkina Faso is charging $ 50 so why are we charging $150?” he asked.

“Before you arrive in Ghana, you will have to get a negative PCR test, so if somebody has a negative PCR Test why should he take an antigen test to verify a PCR test? So you ask yourself was this carefully cooked for somebody just to make money off it,” he added.

The Juaboso MP alleges that the charges and fees for the testing are designed to shortchange travelers entering the country, insisting the positive cases recorded at the airport have hugely declined due to the rigorous testing passengers go through before boarding a flight.

According to him, the positivity rate of Covid-19 from KIA is 0.9 percent.

“Even this 0.9, I am yet to see the positivity rate for the last 6 months which for me I am clearly convinced that it will be insignificant. This 0.9 is even as a result of the fact that we got to the peak around 2020,” he pointed out.

He stated that the nation should rather focus on getting people vaccinated and preventing unvaccinated people from entering the country than continue with the Covid-19 testing.

Meanwhile, Public Health Analyst, Dr. Kwame Sarpong Asiedu has dismissed calls by the Minority for a full scrapping of Covid-19 tests at the Kotoka International Airport (KIA).

Speaking on Newsnight, Wednesday, Dr. Sarpong explained that the country’s Covid-19 figures do not support full scrapping of the tests at KIA.

Referencing countries cited by the Minority to back their calls, Dr. Sarpong noted that these countries have attained the herd immunity threshold thus, they can allow the scrapping of Covid-19 tests at their airports.

“The UK has 88% of its population having two jabs and 67% having three jabs. So the UK has scrapped to the point that whether you have not vaccinated or not, you don’t need anything to come in because they are around the herd immunity threshold and with infections, one thing you cannot do is to constrain human beings simply because they could get infected.

“The minute the link between hospitalisation and death is broken due to infections there is no reason why you can constrain them and that’s why the UK has done it. Ghana doesn’t have that luxury,” he stated.