Ghana’s Minister of Information, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, has said that the Kuwait government will be deporting 245 Ghanaian nationals from their country amid the coronavirus pandemic.
He said they will be arriving in the country on Saturday, May 23.
According to him, the 245 Ghanaians do not have legal documents to stay in the country, as such plans are far advanced by the Kuwait government to deport all of them via a chartered flight.
He said evethough Ghana’s borders have been closed for some weeks, exemptions have been given to other countries to evacuate their nationals.
Speaking about measures to ensure the safety of Ghanaians and the containment of the disease, the Information Minister indicated that all the 245 deportees will be mandatorily quarantined for a period and tested as the norm governing the country’s measures to curtail the spread of the disease.
“Since they are coming as deportees, immigration laws governing such people will be used in processing them,” he said.
He stated that the Government of Ghana will be absorbing the cost of their quarantine period and treatment.
Border closure extended till May 31
President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, earlier this month, extended the closure of Ghana’s borders.
” . . government has taken the decision to extend further the closure of our borders for a month effective 1 am on Monday 4th May until Sunday 31st May,” President Akufo-Addo said at the time.
The President who was addressing workers in a virtual May Day celebration held at the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC) indicated that “we have no option than to keep our borders closed until we are confident that we have put in place measures to prevent travellers from importing the virus. These restrictions cannot and will not be a permanent feature of our lives but they are for now essential features of our lives”.
Ghana’s case count
Ghana’s COVID-19 case count has risen from 6,269 to 6,486 after 217 new cases were recorded according to the Ghana Health Service (GHS) on Friday morning.
Per updates from the GHS, 53 more patients recovered bringing the total number of recoveries to 1,951.
The number of deaths remain 31.
Source: Peacefmonline
