The Ministry of Health and the Ghana Health Service are implementing the digitisation of COVID-19 test results for ease of verification prior to travel and upon arrival in the country.

A statement made available to the Ghana News Agency in Accra on Wednesday said Ghana had become the first country in the ECOWAS to deploy a system for digital verification of COVID-19 PCR test results based on the African Union Trusted Travel and ECOWAS BIOMARS standard.

The statement, signed by Mr Kwaku Agyeman-Manu, the Health Minister, said a technology platform, powered jointly by the Ghana Health Service and the PanaBois Consortium, covered all the authorised COVID-19 PCR testing laboratories in the country.

It said that should help stop the circulation of fake test results, which, if left unchecked, would damage the country’s efforts at reducing the spread of the COVID-19 infection through imported cases.

“All travelers, Airlines and Diplomatic Missions, Port Health, COVID-19 testing laboratories and all other relevant stakeholders in Ghana are informed that only test results or certificates bearing Trusted Travel or BIOMARS codes will be considered valid for travel out of Ghana from 21st April, 2021,” it added.

Travelers arriving in the country must use a tool made available through the UNDP-supported Global Haven partnership (www: globalhaven.org) for Covid-19 PCR test results certificate verification, the statement said.

“A11 travelers are strongly encouraged to sign up for accounts on trustedtravel.panabios.org with the same e-mail address and mobile numbers they provided to the laboratories during testing,” it said.