Govt Must Consider A Reduction In $150 Coronavirus Testing – Okudzeto

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Member of Parliament for North Tongu Constituency, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa has added his voice to calls being made on the government to consider a reduction in the mandatory COVID-19 testing for arriving passengers at the Kotoka International Airport.

According to the Member of Parliaments Foreign Affairs Committee, most Ghanaians who will be arriving in the country have been through a lot of stress brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic and therefore deserve empathy.

For this, he said “our government would seriously have to consider a significant reduction in the advertised US$150.00 for a COVID-19 test,” he wrote in a Facebook post on September 2, 2020, cited by GhanaWeb.

He also suggested another alternative policy option in which the government can institute “a graduated arrangement where foreigners coming to conduct big business are made to pay a little more to subsidize stressed Ghanaian returnees.”

Mr. Ablakwa said he believes a policy of such kind “would not be new to the aviation industry where price differentials have long existed in visa fees, ticketing cost, lounge rates, etc.”

On Sunday, August 30, 2020, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo in his 16th Address to the Nation on measures taken to battle the spread of COVID-19 in the country, announced the reopening of the Kotoka International Airport which seized operations somewhere in march when the nation’s borders including air were declared closed.

As part of measures to ensure the safety of arriving and departing passengers, government announced a mandatory Rapid Antigen test for all passengers to determine their COVID-19 status.

The test is to come for $150 to be borne by the passengers with airline crew members and children under 5 years being an exception.

I have always advocated for some special dispensation for our fellow Ghanaians particularly in difficult circumstances such as these. Our Government would seriously have to consider a significant reduction in the advertised US$150.00 for a COVID-19 test.

Most of our returning compatriots have been under a lot of stress and deserve our continuous empathy.

Another policy option is to have a graduated arrangement where foreigners coming to conduct big business are made to pay a little more to subsidize stressed Ghanaian returnees. A policy alternative of this kind would not be new to the aviation industry where price differentials have long existed in visa fees, ticketing cost, lounge rates etc.

By: www.ghanaweb.com