The Ghana Health Service and its development partners launched the 6th National COVID-19 Vaccination Days campaign in Accra.
Kicking off is another series of National COVID-19 Vaccination Days to be held from January 20 to 24, 2023.
Dr. Patrick Kuma-Aboagye, the Director General of the Agency in his media address said it is sad to note that despite the significant strides made in recent years, the country is still not out of the woods. He called for the rekindling of a strategic partnership to reach a larger proportion of the vaccine-eligible population that remains unvaccinated.
He urged the media to continue spreading the good news about the need for vaccines to get into people’s arms, with a better understanding of the benefits of COVID-19 vaccines.
Dr. Kwame Amponsa-Achiano, Director of the Agency’s Expanded Program on Immunization in his address said the COVID-19 pandemic continues to devastate health care systems and economies worldwide, making the country vulnerable to spread. He said the challenges faced include misinformation and disinformation. low risk perception of infection with COVID-19 and response to multiple outbreaks – Marburg, polio, yellow fever, monkeypox and others.
Dr. Ahiano explained that vaccines for COVID-19 can protect the majority of people from hospitalization and death, which is why as many doses as possible should be given around the world quickly and fairly.
In a speech read on behalf of the Representative of the World Health Organization, Dr. Francis Kasolo said the COVID-19 pandemic continued to rage with the current surge largely driven by the Omicron XBB sun variant. 1.5. He explained that some countries, including China, have been severely affected, and many others continue to record increasing numbers of cases.
Ghana was ranked as one of the countries that managed to effectively control the COVID-19 pandemic. It was further explained that this was largely achieved through the use of non-therapeutic measures such as face coverings, social distancing and hand hygiene. It was emphasized that the WHO continues to recommend the use of masks regardless of the local epidemiological situation, given the current spread of COVID-19 worldwide.
Fiachra McAsey, Unicef representative in Ghana, in a speech noted that Unicef also played a key role in promoting vaccination against COVID-19, both before and during the rounds. He said they will support social mobilization and monitoring activities related to the vaccination days, including, with the support of MTN, sending sms messages to about 20 million people to provide information on the COVID-19 vaccination days. Unicef will also support GHS and Partners with traditional and social media coverage and deploy teams to support the COVID-19 efforts in 12 regions.
Mr McAsey said the festive season was over or over and there were expected spikes in the virus, so he urged everyone to make a New Year’s resolution to ensure everyone gets vaccinated.
Also present were influencers who shared their testimonies about their experience with the disease COVID-19.
SOURCE: PR UNIT, GHS