STANDARD OPERATING PROCEDURES AT GROUND CROSSINGS (THE

POINTS OF ENTRY) FOR PORT HEALTH (SCREENING) AUTHORITY

FEBRUARY 2020

Introduction

This Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) is intended for Port Health

Screening officials at PoE including ground crossing, and other stakeholders
involved in the management of Public health events including Corona virus
disease.

Core Mandate
The core mandate is to carryout surveillance on Public Health Event of
International Concern (PHEIC)-COVID-19; in accordance with Integrated
Disease Surveillance and Response (IDSR)/ International Health Regulations
(IHR)-2005 and in collaboration with other state regulatory agencies with
minimum interference on human traffic, goods and services at the PoE.

Objectives
The objectives are:
 To harmonize processes and procedures for early detection of
potentially infected persons.
 To isolate and refer cases to appropriate health facility

Accomplishing the objectives of the SOP

To mitigate the risk of infectious travellers into the country and minimize the
interference to PoE operations, the following measures should be established
and accomplished.

STEPS IN IMPLEMENTING THIS SOP

STEP 1

1) Message on board conveyance relayed to Port Health (identify the

Coordinator of station)). Port Health Screening office passes on
message to Local/ Woreda EPHI office (HEAD OF Health Service in the
area) (identify their contact numbers).
2) The port health screening office then carries out the following

a) Inform the designated hospital/ambulance service immediately

b) Notify the stakeholders (ground crossing operators, Ambulance

Service, Immigration Service, Customs, conveyance Operators) of
the port of entry to be on standby and assist.

3) The port health office then:

a) Identifies the PPE to use

b) Take other logistics as disinfectants, knapsack spraying machine,

passenger locator cards and sick book register

c) Port health team move to the arrival point of the port of entry with
logistics together with ambulance to await the affected conveyance.

4. Team of Port Health staff should appropriately dress in PPEs and

assemble adequate bio-hazard bags, disinfection equipment,
immediate case-based report forms and passenger locator forms in
readiness.

5. On arrival of conveyance, Port Health Team moves to carry out the

following:

a) Take details of situation from the conveyance operator

(driver/conductor)

b) Assure all the travellers on board

c) Suspected case should be confined to his seat (in the bus)

d) Team leader concisely reminds passengers about a health challenge

on board, reassures them of their safety and appeals for their
cooperation

e) Locate position of case (emergency) and move towards it on board

taking his/her his temperature details with a non-contact
thermometer.

f) The team should move in to isolate the suspected case and other
passengers sitting close.
g) Advice travellers who are seated two/three rows in front, two/three
rows behind and four rows on the case’s adjacent side to remain
seated.

h) Depending on the location of the case advise majority of the

passengers to exit through the entrance which is far from the case
if any.

i) Collect travelling document of suspected case, put in a bio-hazard

bag and handover to Immigration and documents of accompanying
relative.

j) Let passengers closer to the case exit as quickly as possible.

k) One group of the health team should then take the case(s) to the
ambulance

l) Part of the team should then give the passenger locator cards to
the passengers in the rows specified in (e) and help them complete
it

m) A Port Health Officer should accompany the ambulance to the

designated health center.

n) The other team members should Health educates the passengers

after collecting the locator cards (Health Declaration Forms) on the
health measures to take and report to health centers when
symptoms begin to manifest.

o) Guide the rest of the passengers and crew safely to disembark and
assemble at the Holding Area
p) Port Health Team on board conveyance safely bags all soiled items
of the index and probable cases and expertly moves all suspected
cases down into ambulance
q) Appropriately dispose of all soiled items
r) One member of the team joins ambulance team to the health
facility where he seeks opportunity to get the suspected case(s)
provide needed information to complete ‘immediate case-based
report forms’
s) Two members of the team move into conveyance and carry out
thorough disinfection, after which they effectively isolate the
conveyance.
 t) Carry out appropriate disinfections in the passenger holdings

u) Wash hands thoroughly after disinfection and close all holdings of

the conveyance.

v) Depending on the type of case on board, the conveyance should be

grounded for a minimum of six hours.

w) After a minimum of six hours the port health office should re-
inspect the conveyance and supervise cleaning and sanitation of
same.

x) Re-inspect the conveyance and permit it to begin operations.

NOTE WELL: Depending on the specific case and severity of situation the
expert discretion of the Port Health Officer (Coordinator) in such situations is
important.
 STEP 2

 When a traveller’s temperature is above 38.0c or have any health risk

 Isolate traveller
 Notify ambulance service and Local/Woreda Health Administration/ Health
facility
 Inform other staff about condition and assign roles
 Don minimal PPE
 Inform other stakeholders Immigration, Customs and other security
agencies
 Escort traveller to holding room and probe further
 Keep a distant of 1meter or 3feet from suspected case
 Fill passenger locator form/health declaration form for close contacts
 Hand-over travelling document of traveller to Immigration
 Carry out decontamination where appropriate
 Escort ambulance to health facility for secondary screening
 Report to IHR Focal Person/ EPHI

STEP 3

When any stakeholder working at ground crossing notify the Port Health
office of a suspected health risk (traveller with signs of Covid-19) -;

 Identify and don minimal but appropriate PPE.

 Port health team move to the point of the suspected case.

 Take traveller’s temperature
 Isolate traveller

 Notify ambulance service and Local Health Administration/ Health facility

 The Coordinator shall inform other port health staff about the condition
and assign roles
 Inform other stakeholders Immigration, Customs and other security
agencies
 Escort traveller to holding room and probe further
 Keep a distant of 1meter or 3 feet from suspected case
 Fill passenger locator form/health declaration form for close contacts
 Hand-over travelling document of traveller to Immigration
 Carry out decontamination where appropriate
 Escort index case to the ambulance and accompany to health facility.
 Report to IHR Focal Person/ EPHI.