A total of 1,468 persons have so far taken a booster jab of the COVID-19 vaccine since government rolled out the policy two weeks ago.
The Programme Manager of the Expanded Programme on Immunisation (EPI) at the Ghana Health Service (GHS), Dr Kwame Amponsah-Achiano, who made the disclosure said the boosters had mainly been administered in the Greater Accra and Upper West regions.
“In the Greater Accra Region, 1,140 people have received a booster and 328 persons have taken it in the Upper West region,” he shared in a presentation to launch the National COVID-19 Vaccination Days (NaCVaDs) in Accra on Monday.
The five-day campaign, from February 2 to February 6, 2022, is to boost uptake of COVID-19 vaccine uptake to inch the country closer to its herd immunity target of vaccinating at least 60 per cent of the population by end of the first quarter, this year.
Over 6,000 vaccination teams have been mobilised to immunise at least 2.5 million people at the end of the exercise.
According to the Programmes Manager, although nearly 10 million of the targeted population has received a dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, a significant number of the public were still unvaccinated.
“About 13.2 million persons are still unvaccinated of the target we had and the objective of the NaCVaDs is to capture at least 20 per cent within the two weeks,” he said.
The institution of the NaCVaDs, Dr Amponsah-Achiano said, can be an important and critical step to reducing hesitancy and timely improve vaccine uptake nationwide.
Meanwhile a tour of some vaccination sites within the Greater Accra Region by the Ghanaian Times yesterday revealed a steady patronage of booster vaccines among the public.
At the premises of the Nurses and Midwifery Council (N&MC) within the Okaikoi North District where the vaccination team had been mounted, 20 people had received boosters as of 10:00am when the paper visited.
A Community Health Nurse (CHN) and supervisor of the team, Comfort Tetteh, pointed out that although patronage was low at the initial stages, more people were turning up for the boosters this week.
“For the boosters, one will have to take it at least three months after the second dose so when they come, we inspect the vaccination cards and if you are a month or two after taking your second dose, we don’t administer the booster,” she explained.
The CHN who encouraged the public to avail themselves for a booster said, it was important to build stronger immunity against COVID-19.
“For now, we can mix the vaccines, so you may not need to take the vaccine you took originally when coming for a booster. We need the boosters to produce the needed antibodies and fully protect against the virus and I encourage people to come for them,” she advised.
The situation was no different at the Weija-Gbawe Municipal Hospital where people trickled in to take their booster jabs.
A vaccinee who spoke on condition of anonymity encouraged people to take the boosters to relieve them of the fear of severe illness or hospitalisation from COVID-19.
“The experts tell us after taking the two-dose, your immunity wanes after a while and for me, the relieve of mind that after taking the boosters, should I default in observing the protocols, I have enough protection, so it’s the peace of mind for me,” he stated.
BY ABIGAIL ANNOH
