Nalerigu,– A total of 115,221 people in the North East Region have taken the COVID-19 jab as against a target of 381,701 people.
The percentage of all persons, who so far took at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccines in the region, stood at 30.2 per cent while 16.9 per cent fully completed their COVID-19 vaccination.
Currently, the Ghana Health Service in the region has a total of 16,133 doses of COVID-19 vaccines, some of which will expire by the end of this month while the rest by the middle of January 2021.
Dr Abdulai Abukari, North East Regional Director of Health, announced the figures at a stakeholders’ meeting at Nalerigu on Tuesday.
He appealed to the “Media, Chiefs, Queen Mothers, Pastors, Imams, the Security Agencies, Heads of Senior High Schools to support…in getting our people vaccinated.”
The meeting, organised by the North East Regional Health Directorate, was to brief members of the Regional Public Health Emergency Management Committee and members of the press on the status of COVID-19 vaccination in the region.
It was also to solicit support in protecting residents of the region from COVID-19 through vaccination.
Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, the North East Region had recorded 283 cases with 11 deaths and currently, the region has no active case on admission anywhere.
Efforts to vaccinate people in the region are being challenged by an erratic supply of COVID-19 vaccines, low supply in quantities, near expiry of vaccines, low logistics inflow, high vaccine hesitancy and poor flow of funds to undertake activities.
Dr Abukari said the Regional and District Health Directorates in the area were working to intensify local stakeholder engagements with chiefs and community elders on vaccine hesitancy to improve the region’s vaccination status.
He emphasised that the COVID-19 pandemic was the biggest health threat to the survival of humans.
He made an appeal to people to go for the jab, saying, “all our community members, who have not yet taken the vaccine, to get vaccinated. The vaccine is free and protective.
“So, let’s make it our civic duty and responsibility to get vaccinated as well as advocate for the vaccination of all our loved ones, who are eligible.”
Mr Korzie Sambo, North East Regional Coordinating Director, urged members of the Public Health Emergency Management Committee to be ambassadors of COVID-19 vaccination by educating community members to take the vaccines to protect them and society.
Some members of the Public Health Emergency Management Committee proposed that government should make COVID-19 vaccination compulsory for all public sector workers and some categories of workers to ensure uptake of vaccination in the area.
Source: Ghana News Agency
Add Comment