Ghana to require full vaccination for arriving travellers or jab on arrival

Ghana has announced that all adult visitors must provide proof of vaccination to enter the country, the government announced Friday, in an effort to prevent the escalation of coronavirus cases over the holiday period.

Ghanaian citizens and residents abroad have two weeks to cross the border unvaccinated after the order goes into effect on Dec. 12.

“The current increase in cases together with the detection of the omicron variant among international arrivals and the expected increase during the festive season calls for urgent actions to prevent a major surge in COVID-19 cases in Ghana,” the Ghana Health Service said in a statement.

Since November Ghana has been recording an average of 20 positive cases at the airport per day. Of the 34 cases of the omicron variant detected in Ghana so far, 75% of them were unvaccinated, the statement said. Over the last two weeks, cases from the airport account for about 60% of the total new cases recorded in the country.

A person must have taken the full recommended doses of vaccines approved and registered by Ghana’s Food and Drugs Authority, which includes one dose of Johnson & Johnson and two doses of AstraZeneca, Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna or Sputnik V.

Other arrival requirements include a negative PCR test taken at least 72 hours before travel and an antigen test upon arrival?? remain unchanged.

Many other countries have avoided an outright blanket ban on unvaccinated arrivals, such as members of the European Union and the United States.
Ghana’s land and sea borders have been closed to passenger traffic since restrictions were first introduced at the start of the pandemic.

Alongside the new measures, Ghanaian authorities will also still insist that all arrivals present a negative PCR test.

All Ghanaians flying out of the country will also need to be fully vaccinated.

This means that a Ghanaian national who is not currently vaccinated but gets a jab at the airport would have to wait until getting a second dose before they were able to fly out, unless they get one from Johnson and Johnson.