Côte d'Ivoire: air transport users stranded for lack of Covid test results

In a Covid-19 screening center in Abidjan, a woman waits her turn to be tested on April 15, 2020. REUTERS / Luc Gnago

Text by: RFI Follow

3 min

In Côte d'Ivoire, a negative test for Covid-19 is mandatory for all air transport users.

But what to do when the results of these tests are never released?

Travelers who were unable to board their flights due to malfunctions in the process are angry. 

Publicity

Read more

With our correspondent in Abidjan,

François Hume-Ferkatadji

Despite the compulsory payment of a “Covid” tax of 50,000 CFA Francs by all travelers departing from Abidjan, many users do not receive the results on time (in theory within 48 hours), and are refused boarding, which leads to additional costs and a lot of stress.

As part of her job for an NGO, Angela, a Guinean national, was in training in Côte d'Ivoire.

On Saturday, she could not board her plane like six of her colleagues because the results of her Covid test were not sent to her within the allotted time.

It causes a lot of problems because I don't know when I can get my results and I don't know when I can return to my country.

I had not planned accommodation beyond Sunday, I had to get in touch with friends and acquaintances in my country to be able to try to remedy the situation for the extra days.

 "

Resident in Burkina Faso, and English by nationality, Samantha experienced the same misadventure this weekend.

She deplores the lack of support from the Ivorian authorities and reports strong tensions within

the Pasteur Institute in Abidjan

, responsible for communicating the results.

No one is trying to find a solution.

I am not the only person with this problem.

Whether I go to Treichville or that I go to the Institut Pasteur, I find myself with a hundred people who have the same problem as me.

Why isn't there a solution to this, why isn't there a center where we can find a solution for those who don't have results

?

 "

Last September, the government implemented a tax of 50,000 francs for air transport users in order to finance the Covid tests and analyzes of travelers. 

Newsletter

Receive all the international news directly in your mailbox

I subscribe

Follow all the international news by downloading the RFI application

google-play-badge_FR

  • Ivory Coast

  • Coronavirus