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The Director General of the Ghana Health Service (GHS) has said that no positive cases of Covid-19 have been recorded at Kotoka International Airport (KIA) after it was reopened on September 1.
Dr. Patrick Kuma-Aboagye said that in two days, a total of 247 passengers had so far undergone antigen testing for Covid-19 at the airport since its reopening on Tuesday, September 1; without any positive case of Covid-19.
Speaking at a press conference Thursday in Accra, he said that 217 passengers were tested on the first day of the airport’s reopening, on September 1 and 30 tested on the second day, on September 2.
Dr. Kuma-Aboagye said that the antigen testing devices (rapid Covid-19 test at the point of care) installed at the airport were for the detection of the SARS-CoV-2 virus in nasopharyngeal swabs.
“It’s basically to make sure we don’t import viruses and people who (have the virus) traveling into the country, so that our airport is a safe area for people to do business.”
He said arriving passengers must have a negative Covid-19 polymerase chain reaction (PCR) result and the sample should have been taken no more than 72 hours before the trip.
The Director General said that passengers also had to undergo an antigen test upon arrival at the airport; indicating that “if you are negative, you go through immigration and customs and leave.”
“If positive, the passenger will be isolated in a waiting room and transported to Ga East Hospital for further clinical evaluation and management.”
He said the ultimate goal of the process was to minimize the risk of importing the virus to the population as the nation reopened its borders.
Dr. Kuma-Aboagye said that the antigen test device was an amino acid fluorescent device that performed the antigen test with a very high sensitivity greater than 99 percent; stating that “if it says you are negative; you are really negative and if he says you are positive, then you are really positive. “
Prof. William Ampofo, National Coordinator, Ghana Covid-19 Testing Regimen, reiterated that the test at the airport was an antigen test, which was based on fluorescent immunoacid.
“It is a rapid point of care device. Six samples are required and will take about 15 minutes to come out. The sample taken is a nasopharyngeal swab. “
He said the device and its reagents have been evaluated by the Food and Drug Authority.
Professor Ampofo said that on behalf of the COVID Working Group, he carried out some evaluations on the device using samples that were analyzed by PCR.
He said the results of two tests they had performed indicated that the antigen testing device was 100 percent specific; “That is, when we look at the samples that have been declared negative by PCR, these samples also turned out to be negative for the presence of antigen for Covid-19.”
“When we looked at sensitivity, the ability to take positive samples by PCR, the machine gave us a range between 90 and 95 percent.”
This, he said, they considered satisfactory because the airport’s policy was that arriving passengers were assumed to have a negative PCR.
“So we hope that when we do the Antigen test at the airport, because it is 100 percent specific, we hope to find that there will be no bodies with a positive result.
“That is the basis for recommending the use of the antigen machine at the airport. Because it is faster than PCR, this is why it is known as the fast device. “
“PCR takes about an hour and 30 minutes or two hours when a sample is loaded into the machine. It is impossible to do PCR at any airport and get the result in less than three hours ”, said Prof. Ampofo.
