Editorial

GHS outlines measures to check COVID-19 upsurge in December

The Ghana Health Service (GHS) has outlined a number measures to prevent a possible surge of coronavirus (COVID-19) during the Christmas festivities.

The measures which include the declaration of December as the vaccine month is to forestall a similar situation last year where there was a major upsurge in the number of cases in the country after the yuletide.

The journalists. Photo: Ebo Gorman

Addressing the media in Accra yesterday, the Director-General of the Service, Dr Patrick Kumah-Aboagye, said the declaration of December as the vaccine month was to enable as many Ghanaians as possible to be vaccinated against the disease.

He explained that vaccination remained the surest way of bringing the pandemic under control and the service was working round the clock to achieve the country’s target of 20million people by the end of the year.

Dr Kumah-Aboagye explained that the country had taken delivery of more vaccines from the five duly registered for use in the country.

He said so far about 5,451,291 people had at least taken a jab and with vaccination hitting more than 140,000 a day, the country was likely to meet its target.

“So far we have taken delivery of 12,324,710 vaccines and with 7,422,810 in the pipeline, we will be able to vaccinate all the people. We are currently doing about 142, 834 people a day and we intend to double the figure to vaccinate a lot more people,” he said.

The Director-General noted that apart from ramping up the vaccination exercise, the service would ensure strict enforcement and reinforcement of response in anticipation of a possible surge.

Furthermore, he said well thought out engagements would be held with the various religious organisations to ensure that, their members adhered to strict adherence to the safety protocols.

Touching on the status of the disease in the country, he said a total of 131,082 cases had so far been recorded in the country with a decline in active cases over the last two months.

However, he noted that there had been some increase in numbers among international travellers over the past two weeks and this was as a result of the global spike in cases currently being witnessed.

Dr Kumah-Aboagye explained that the Greater Accra still remained the country’s hotspot area despite the general decline in infection rate.

He allayed the fears of Ghanaians on the new Omicron variant, stressing that “We have been sequencing  samples and I can confirm to you that, the new variant is not in Ghana.”

BY CLIFF EKUFUL

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