The Municipal Health Directorate in the Effia Kwesimintsim Metropolitan Assembly (EKMA), is set to embark on a 5 day of covid -19 vaccination exercise across the Municipality.
This move forms part of the National Immunization Day (NID) which comes off from Thursday, April 21 to Monday, April 25, 2022, which will take place in the Municipality to achieve and sustain the needed national protection against the coronavirus and ward off any catastrophic effects of current and emerging variants of the virus.
In a media briefing, the Municipal Health Director, Joyce Bagina Sutherland opined that the Municipal is leveraging this exercise to improve vaccination coverage.
According to her, even as the nation is not recording high cases of the virus, there’s a need for people to get vaccinated against the virus.
She added that the easing of the covid-19 restrictions doesn’t call for people to let their guards down but continue to adhere to the protocols which will make the state free from the virus.
“The easing of Covid-19 restrictions was welcome news for all. However, if this state is to be sustained, then we need to improve our national, regional and municipal protection against the Covid-19 virus.
This depends on all of us. We cannot take things for granted nor assume that Covid-19 is no more. Indeed Covid 19 is real and still reeling among our populace as well as globally and wreaking havoc on lives and livelihoods.
Madam Bagina stated that the vaccination is targeted at serving at least 13% of the eligible population within the municipality with the vaccines; be it first dose, second dose or booster. This, however, translates to 18,735 people in the Municipality.
Given the statistics of the vaccinated populace in the region, 43.9 per cent of eligible persons have by far received one dose of the vaccine, with 26. 3 per cent being fully vaccinated and 3.4 per cent of fully vaccinated people have received a booster dose.
This data suggests that 56.1 per cent of the eligible persons in the region are yet to receive a first dose of the vaccine.
Persons eligible for the vaccination are children under 15years and above, pregnant women, all adults who are not fully vaccinated, all who have taken one dose of Johnson and Johnson over three months ago are eligible for a booster dose, all who have taken 1 & 2 doses of any of the vaccine more than 3 months ago are eligible to take a booster and lastly all who took one dose of any of the vaccination.
To ensure a smooth exercise, health workers will visit homes, workplaces, religious gatherings, schools and markets. Madam Joyce Bagina entreated the general public to comply with health workers who come to administer vaccines and report to the nearest government health facility in case of any complications.
