Ghana has received over 2.5 million doses of Johnson and Johnson COVID19 vaccines through the COVAX facility from the Governments of Denmark & the United States on Wednesday, December 8.
This comes after the Ghana Health Service declared December as mandatory vaccination month.
Addressing a press conference in Accra on Sunday, November 28, the Director-General of the GHS, Dr Patrick Kumah-Aboagye said vaccination was the surest way to deal with the virus.
He further assured that the authorities are going to scale up surveillance measures at the Kotoka International Airport during the Christmas season to ensure that Covid infections do not increase.
He further said that the mistakes that were made in December last year which occasioned the escalation of infections in January this year, will not be repeated.
There is going to be “strict enforcement of the protocols at the KIA. We are going to increase surveillance. We are expecting an increased number of people to arrive in the country.
“We are going to ensure that our logistics are prepared, we will continue our surveillance to be able to look at that, we are going to look at isolation centres,” he said.
He added “Our contact tracing will be strengthened.
“We are going to engage with religious organizations to ensure that activities done in Christmas are in accordance with Covid protocols.”
Presidential Advisor on Health, Dr Anthony Nsia Asare, had allayed fears of persons who are worried about the potential reaction from taking the covid vaccine.
He stated that it is normal to experience headaches, body pains and other reactions. These are indications that the vaccine is functioning properly in the body, he said.
Dr Nsia Asare further urged all persons who are yet to receive their vaccines to do so in order to save their lives and the lives of others.
In his view, Ghana cannot afford to go through the fourth wave of the coronavirus pandemic hence the government, through the Ghana Health Service (GHS), has taken the vaccination exercise a step higher in order to get as many as possible inoculated.
Vaccination centres, he stated, are being created closed to the people in the communities including market areas to make it easier for them to go through the exercise.
“We cannot afford a fourth wave,” he said, adding that “we can all do this together if you are vaccinated,” he said.
