Dr Kwame Amponsa-Achiano, Programme Manager, Expanded Programme on Immunization, Ghana Health Service, has hailed Ghanaians for showing interest and commitment in the on-going COVID-19 mass vaccination exercise.
He said the Service was impressed by the massive turnout by Ghanaians at centres earmarked for the exercise despite earlier skepticism it had due to the misconceptions regarding the safety of the vaccines.
In an interview with the media on the side-lines of the National Delegates Congress of Community Health Nurses, Ghana (CHNG) in Accra on Thursday, Dr Amponsa-Achiano said the GHS was overwhelmed by the level of interest and patronage by Ghanaians.
The three-day delegate congress, organised by the CHNG and the Ghana Registered Nurses and Midwives Association, was to elect substantive leaders to run the affairs of the community health nurses.
It was under the theme: “Harnessing Community Nurses’ Prospects, Fulcrum to Attain Preventive Health as a Nation.”
Dr Amponsa-Achiano said: "Initially because of the hesitancy and conspiracy theories we were a bit skeptical and cautiously hopeful but the turnout has been impressive," he said.
He, however, attributed the high turn out to the sensitisation exercise undertaken by the GHS prior to the enrollment of the exercise.
He said, so far, an estimated 30,500 people had been vaccinated as of Wednesday, March 3, 2021.
“Out of this, about 16,990 of them are males while 13,450 are females,” he said.
He further disclosed that about 11,500 frontline health workers had also been vaccinated.
Ghana, on February 24, took delivery of 600,000 doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine from the COVAX facility for free. Government is looking to vaccinate about 20 million of the population against the virus.