December will be declared COVID-19 Vaccination Month with a national launch to be held on Tuesday 30th November 2021 by the Minister for Health.
This forms part of efforts to get more Ghanaians to take the jab with the increasing availability of vaccines and a reasonable quantity in the pipeline.
“We are declaring December as the month of vaccination. We have the exercise in two sections. There are proposed groups that will be covered under the mandate and the various venues where the vaccination will be carried out. We are looking at the three arms of government, all health workers, all security personnel will be covered, all staff and students in secondary and tertiary schools should be vaccinated, all government workers and commercial drivers together with their mates,” the Director-General of the Ghana Health Service (GHS), Dr Patrick Kuma-Aboagye, disclosed this yesterday.
Providing updates on the COVID-19 during the meet the press series organised by the Ministry of Information, the GHS boss bemoaned the low pace at which Ghanaians patronize the vaccination exercise.
This, according to him, explained why his outfit is introducing a vaccine mandate, an enhanced vaccination programme applicable from January 2022 to increase the number of people who turn up at vaccination centers to be vaccinated.
He said the vaccine mandate will be applied and targeted at specific groups and venues including all the three arms of government, all health workers, security personnel, staff and students in secondary and tertiary institutions, workers in government institutions including parastatals and commercial drivers.
Venues for the application of the vaccine mandates, he pointed out, will include nightclubs, beaches, sports stadia and restaurants.
According to him, 5,451,291 doses of COVID-19 vaccines have been administered as of Saturday 27th November, 2021
The administered vaccines include AstraZeneca, 4,535,913 doses; Sputnik-V, 17,641; Moderna, 444,600; Pfizer-BioNTech, 279,935; and Covid-19 vaccine Janssen, 172,202.
He however indicated that so far only 1.4 million people have been fully vaccinated, which corresponds to just 7% of the entire Ghanaian population.
Dr. Kuma-Aboagye disclosed that Greater Accra remains the hotspot in terms of infections but noted there has been a decline in active cases over the past two months with very few cases on admission.
Total cases
As of 25th November, 2021, a total of 131,082 cases have been confirmed; approximately 2 million (overall positivity- 6.6%) tests have been conducted; 129,149 recoveries; 1,220 deaths with 713 active cases, 22 severe and 0 critical cases.
He stated that as Christmas approaches the GHS and the Ministry of Health will continue to implement the protocols on international travels with an expectation of a surge due to the anticipated increase in the number of arrivals.
Dr Kuma-Aboagye noted that Ghana’s land borders remain closed and stressed the GHS will continue to work closely with the Ghana Immigration Service and other security agencies to ensure that COVID-19 cases are not imported through the land border.
“Strict enforcement of the protocols at the Kotoka International Airport and all entry points will continuously be implemented.
“There will be increased surveillance and monitoring of new strains and persons returning from countries of concern and reinforcement of response to the anticipated surge,” he said.
Dr. Kuma-Aboagye noted that protocols for air international travellers remain unchanged and include a 72-hour PCR Test and Antigen test at KIA.
He assured that efforts continue to be made to increase access to vaccines for the population but lamented that the pockets of vaccine hesitancy are posing a major risk to gains that have been made so far.
He noted that the current low numbers of COVID infections recorded in the country may not be maintained if vaccine uptake is not increased significantly.
