Vaccinated persons urged to go for boosters
The Ministry of Health (MOH) has declared Wednesday, February 2 to Sunday, February 6 as National COVID-19 Vaccination Days to increase vaccine uptake among the public.
The campaign, with the support of the Ghana Health Service, seeks to vaccinate 20 percent of unvaccinated persons by administering 2.5 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines within the five-day campaign period.
A Deputy Minister for Health, Madam Tina Mensah, who launched the National COVID-19 Vaccination Campaign in Accra on Monday, said the routine mass vaccination for the public would, however, continue after the five-day campaign.
She said all persons 15 years and above, including pregnant women who had not received a jab of the COVID-19 vaccine, were expected to get vaccinated.
She encouraged those who were fully vaccinated to go for their boosters within the period.
Madam Mensah said although the Ministry was yet to officially announce a date for the full implementation of the Mandatory Vaccination Policy, the campaign would ensure that a reasonable number of Ghanaians were vaccinated to attain herd immunity.
Dr. Patrick Kuma- Aboagye, Director General of the GHS, said the campaign was part of the COVID-19 vaccination plan, which started in March last year.
He said the vaccine rollout activity had been challenged with myths, misconceptions, misinformation, and rumors, leading to vaccine hesitancy.
Dr. Kuma- Aboagye said “low-risk perception” – the notion that some people could not contract the virus had also contributed to vaccine hesitancy.
The Director-General stated that the Service would through the campaign days engage and educate the public on the importance and effectiveness of vaccination.
He called on all to keep adhering to the COIVID-19 safety protocols and get involved in the campaign on the theme, “Protect yourself and protect your family. Get vaccinated against COVID-19 now.”
Dr. Kwame Amponsa-Achiano, Programme Manager for the Expanded Program on Immunization (EPI), GHS, said Ghana had received a total of 25,858,290 doses of varied COVID-19 vaccines as of January 30, 2022.
Out of that, 10,112,997 doses have been administered with a total of 7,262,928 representing 36. 3 percent of the targeted number of persons to be vaccinated, receiving at least a dose.
He said as of January 30, 3,594,345 persons, representing 18 percent of the targeted 20 million persons had been vaccinated, and that 1,468 persons had so far received a booster dose.
“As of now 13.2 million persons are still unvaccinated, 3.7 million only are partially vaccinated and the objective of this campaign is to vaccinate 20 percent of the unvaccinated within one week,” he said.
He said the campaign would see to the deployment of more than 6,000 vaccination teams, 1,500 supervisors across the nation with the use of static and mobile vaccination centres.
The EPI Programme Manager called on the media and stakeholders to support the vaccination drive.