GHS unhappy with low patronage of free covid-19 vaccination program

The Ghana Health Service (GHS) is unhappy with the low patronage of the free COVID-19 vaccination program.

Despite the government’s plan to vaccinate twenty million Ghanaians before the end of the year, only five million have so far received at least a single jab.

Out of this number, 1.2 million can be classified as fully vaccinated.

Speaking to Citi News, the Manager of the expanded program on immunization, Dr. Kwame Amponsah-Achiano, lamented that Ghanaians are still skeptical about getting vaccinated due to misinformation.

“As of 21st, we had almost 5 million doses given out. Some have received 1, others 2. When we count the doses individually, we are looking at 4.7. Out of this number, only 1.2 million are fully vaccinated.”

“Considering our track record, we have done more campaigning on COVID-19 vaccines than we have in the past. Even with those, we were able to inoculate more than 6 million doses within 10 days.”

He noted that health professionals have the capacity to vaccinate about 2 million people a week, “only that, most people are reluctant to get vaccinated due to misinformation and fear.”

The Ghana Health Service (GHS) disclosed that as of Friday, October 8, 2021, the government had received a total of about 5.3 million doses of vaccines to aid in the ongoing vaccination against COVID-19 in the country.

The latest delivery of 1.3 million doses of Pfizer vaccines came from the US government.

It was a donation from the US government through the COVAX facility to aid the country’s inoculation exercise.

The government has committed to vaccinating 20 million Ghanaians by the end of 2021.