Covid-19: Western regional health directorate targets vaccination of13% of population in 5 days
Covid-19 report from the Western Region of Ghana indicates that 56 per cent of the eligible population are yet to receive their first dose of the Covid-19 vaccination.
Statistics, according to the Ghana Health Service indicate that 43% of the eligible population has got a single dose, with 27% having received all three doses. Only 3.1 per cent of people have seen a boost. Vaccine hesitation and resistance, according to the Public Health Department of the Ghana Health Service (GHS) regional directorate, are due to a variety of factors, including the false belief that Covid-19 is no longer present.
Despite this, the health directorate has decided to raise the percentage of completely vaccinated people in the eligible population.
As a result, the Public Health Department indicated that they are using the next five days starting from Thursday, April 21 2022 to attempt to get 13 per cent of the eligible population vaccinated.
Dr. Gifty Amugi, the Regional Deputy Director of Public Health told Connect FM that “These include persons yet to receive a first dose of the Covid-19 vaccine, a person due for a second dose, or a person due for a booster”.
The second Covid-19 immunization exercise, she continued, is based on the urgent need not to “let our guards down since cases are dropping, but we are still not out of the woods”.
She further noted that “as a nation and region, we have seen a significant decline in the number of active Covid-19 cases. That is good news. But that also means that this is the time for us to enhance our protection against the virus.
Reiterating the need for collective protection Dr. Gifty Amugi said, “we need to enhance the uptake of the Covid-19 vaccine so that we will get the required levels of protection against the virus so that it will not matter the kind or number of variants of the virus that will come. We will still be protected.”
The approach for the second round of vaccination, according to Dr. Gifty Amugi, will be an aggressive outreach drive to have as many individuals as possible immunized.
“So, we are using wide risk communication and also enhancing our education activities at all fronts in every community in all the districts in the [Western] Region. We will do door-to-door in every organization, market, churches, bus terminals. So, it will be a combination of mobile and static mode of administration. The target is 13 per cent of the eligible population which will be a little over 149, 000”.
The vaccination practice will begin on April 21 and end on April 25 according to her.
