Liberia re-opens its airport to air traffic

Liberia has opened its international airport to regular air traffic after it was closed to contain the spread of the coronavirus.

This makes Liberia the first West African country to open its air borders amid the coronavirus pandemic.

However, Liberia will remain in a state of emergency until July 22 to curb the spread of coronavirus in the country. Liberia has recorded over 600 cases so far.

Several African countries have closed their borders and stopped regular air traffic as part of measures to curb the spread of the virus.

However, the economic effect of border closures in various countries has been enormous.

The COVID-19 pandemic has left countries and businesses hardly hit. Countries have had to adjust their economic forecasts for the year while businesses have fired some staff and, in some cases, lost clients.

The GDP for Liberia for instance is reported to have declined since 2019 and this year isn’t looking good either.

Liberia is not the only country to announce a reopening of its air borders. Last week Zambia’s President Edgar Lungu also announced the reopening of the country’s air borders and airports.

He explained that the decision was to boost the economy of the country which has been badly hit by restrictions imposed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

In Africa, there are over 380,000 confirmed COVID-19 cases, with more than 181,000 recoveries and 9,500 deaths.