Some elderly persons in Kumasi in the Ashanti Region who were left unattended to at some COVID-19 vaccination centres after joining long queues want health authorities to make the process less stressful to encourage more people to take the vaccine.
Speaking to Citi News, the elderly appealed to authorities to set up more vaccination centers to minimize the congestion.
An unattended-to senior citizen sharing his dismay said: “It is almost 4 pm the people are closing so many people will not get a chance to do it. If someone comes twice or thrice he will go and not come back again. So we are pleading with the government of Ghana to help the health ministry by employing more staff and resourcing them.”
According to the Municipal Health Director for Asokwa, Bernice Osei, who had visited the Kumasi South Hospital where there was congestion, the Health Directorate is adopting measures to ensure that all persons who visit the various centers go through the exercise peacefully.
“We are still in the communities so wherever will be having our CWCs; what they call the weighing centers, they will be there to vaccinate them. We decided that we will visit the companies around us so when we go the head will make sure that those under him will be immunized,” she said.
COVID-19 roll-out programme
The COVID-19 vaccination programme began Tuesday, 2nd March, 2021 with the deployment of the 600,000 doses of AstraZeneca vaccines which were manufactured by the Serum Institute of India.
The vaccination rollout is to be conducted in 43 districts with high infection rates.
They include 25 in the Greater Accra Region, 16 in the Ashanti Region, and two in the Central Region.
The Ghana Health Service has also outlined the COVID-19 vaccination centres across Accra for the persons within the first segment targetted for vaccination.
These include healthcare workers, frontline security personnel, persons with underlying medical conditions, persons 60 years and above, and frontline members of the Executive, Legislature and Judiciary.
App to be developed to aid COVID-19 vaccine rollout – GHS
The Director-General of the Ghana Health Service, Dr. Patrick Kuma-Aboagye said the app was being sourced locally.
“We are currently going to adapt a locally developed app which will allow us to be able to schedule and do preregistration before you go and vaccinate. You can book appointments,” he said at a press conference on Monday.
He added that “it will generate your COVID-19 passport for you, so we know all see those who are getting the vaccine and the database will be in Ghana.”