Western Regional Health Director, Dr Yaw Ofori-Yeboah has hinted that the month of December has been declared “The Month of Vaccination” by the Ministry of Health (MOH) in collaboration with the Ghana Health Service (GHS) to enable every individual and family to celebrate the season in health and remain healthy afterwards.
He announced that his outfit aims at attaining 50 per cent coverage for at least one dose of vaccination by the end of December 2021.
He said in line with this, the Health Directorate with support from the Regional Minister and other stakeholders have set up 350 sites throughout the region for COVID-19 vaccination.
Some of the sites are in locations such as health facilities, lorry parks, markets, riverine communities, hard-to-reach areas and educational institutions with evening vaccination sessions provided in some of the sites.
Speaking at a press briefing, Mr Ofori-Yeboah cited the readiness of his outfit for the exercise and said vaccines have been dispatched to all districts and health subdistricts to ensure that the vaccines were easily accessible to all eligible persons irrespective of their location.
He announced that after recording 7,551 COVID-19 cases and 73 deaths in the region, the daily cases have declined over the past two months as currently, the region has two active cases.
However, the region was not out of the woods yet especially, when Christmas was just around the corner, taking a cue from a similar trend during the same period last year but by January 2021, the number of cases soared leading to the death of many lives.
Meanwhile, the devastating impact of several variants of the COVID-19 virus on lives and livelihoods remains fresh on our minds as it moved from alpha, beta through to delta and currently, omicron.
Mr Ofori-Yeboah, therefore, underscored the need to uphold adherence to all the COVID-19 safety protocols and for eligible persons to get fully vaccinated against the COVID-19 virus.
He commended the Confederation of Masqueraders and the CorpNation Foundation on improving COVID-19 vaccination uptake and said vaccination teams will be on hand during the “Ankos” celebrations.
Mr Ofori-Yeboah also encouraged all event organizers and corporate bodies in the region to also collaborate with the Directorate to extensively serve the people with the COVID-19 vaccines at their convenience.
He refuted the myths and wrong perceptions about the vaccines purported in the public and allayed the fears that the vaccines had some complications, and further assured that the vaccines were safe and effective.
“We need everyone on board to help us achieve the ultimate aim of vaccinating all eligible individuals against COVID-19 virus. In this COVID-19 Vaccination Month, let’s support each other to get vaccinated”, he pointed out.
He enumerated that 1,423,140 are eligible to be vaccinated against the COVID-19 virus whereas 494,854 doses of COVID-19 vaccine has been administered so far in the region.
Currently, 25 per cent of the eligible population has received at least a dose of the vaccine with 65 per cent yet to receive a single dose of any of the vaccines.
Meanwhile, the Tarkwa-Nsuaem Municipality has the highest COVID-19 vaccination (1st dose) coverage with the Jomoro District having the lowest coverage with 12.3 per cent.
Story: Seth A Danquah
