Ghana begins digital verification of COVID-19 test results

Ghana has become the first country in the Economic Community of West African States to deploy a system for digital verification of COVID-19 PCR test results.

The system, which is based on the African Union Trusted Travel and ECOWAS BIOMARS standard, is being implemented by the Ministry of Health through the Ghana Health Service.

This is expected to provide an ease of verification prior to travel and upon arriving in the country, and also help stop the circulation of fake test results which could damage the country’s effort against the spread of COVID-19 through imported cases.

A statement issued by the Minister of Health, Kwaku Agyeman-Manu, revealed that the technology platform is powered jointly by the Ghana Health Service and the PanaBIOS Consortium.

According to the statement, “All travellers, 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.

“Travellers arriving in the country must use a tool made available through the UNDP-supported Global Haven partnership ( PCR test results certificate verification) for Covid-19

“All travellers are strongly encouraged to sign up for accounts with the same e-mail address and mobile numbers they provided to the laboratories during testing.”