A total of 403,439 passengers arrived in Ghana through the Kotoka International Airport (KIA) since the facility was re-opened in September 2020 after the COVID-19 restrictions were eased.
According to the Minister for Transport, Kwaku Ofori Asiamah, this data spans between September 2020 and July 2021.
The Minister revealed the numbers in parliament in response to questions from members of the Minority caucus.
The Minority has raised questions about the Frontiers Health Services contract at the airport for COVID-19 testing.
It is unclear how the caucus intends to use the figures presented by the Minister, but Mr. Ofori Asiamah, on the floor of the house, gave a monthly breakdown of the arrival figures.
“Mr. Speaker, between September to December 2020 and January to July 2021, the Ghana Airports Company Limited recorded a total of 403,439 international passenger traffic to Ghana. Also, from January to July this year, the total number of international passenger traffic to Ghana was 300,821 totaling 403,439,”.
Monthly Breakdown
September 2020 [18,316], October 2020 [25,410], November 2020 [23,238] and December 2020 [35, 654] totaling 102,618 for 2020 alone.
The rest are January 2021 [39,152], February 2021 [28,356], March 2021 [36,796], April 2021 [37,796], May 2021 [43,442], June 2021 [52,086] and July 2021 [63,437] making a total of 300,821 for 2021.
Currently, all passengers arriving in Ghana are to have in their possession a negative COVID‑19 PCR test result in English from an accredited laboratory in their country of origin.
The tests are to be done not more than 72 hours before the scheduled departure from the country of origin.
COVID-19 numbers
The Ghana Health Service, (GHS) has said the country recorded more COVID-19 cases at the Kotoka International Airport, KIA, in the month of July 2021. The GHS mentioned that a total of 493 positive cases recorded for July is the highest since the Airport reopened in September last year.
“In the month of July, we recorded the highest number of cases at our international airport since September 1, 2021. So last month was the highest level that we ever peaked since we started testing at the airport” Director-General of the GHS, Dr. Patrick Kumah Aboagye said.
The Service has also denied claims of poor COVID-19 testing at the airport, saying the claims are erroneous.
This was after some passengers and even the minority in Parliament raised concerns about what they say are discrepancies in the outcome of tests at the Kotoka International Airport.
The Ghana Health Service, in a statement provided explanations to two passengers whose allegations had gone viral, stating that their claims were ill-informed.
One of the passengers later apologised for putting out inaccurate information in a video that went viral.
Statistics on KIA testing
Since the KIA was re-opened to international travel on 1st September 2020, a total of 398,803 passengers have so far been tested for COVID-19 upon arrival at the KIA as of 31st July 2021.
Of these, 2,386 have tested positive for COVID-19, representing 0.6% of the total Antigen tests conducted at the KIA for arriving passengers.
Out of those who have tested positive, 1494 (63%) have been males and 892 (37%) have been females. Again, 987 (41%) have been Ghanaians and 1,399 (59%) non-Ghanaians.