Editorial by Ghanaian Times: Patronise ongoing COVID-19 vaccination

We commend the Ghana Health Ser­vice (GHS) for con­tinuing to make sure that the country is not overtaken by any preventable COVID-19 infections.

Therefore, the GHS offi­cials keep educating the public about the disease and also run vaccination exercises.

Thus, it rolls out its sev­enth edition of the National COVID-19 Vaccination Days campaign exercise from today.

The exercise, like the pre­vious ones, targets persons who have not been vaccinated at all, and those aged 15 and above who have received a single jab.

The objective of the cam­paign is to increase the uptake of COVID-19 vaccines among eligible persons yet to be vaccinated, thereby en­suring herd immunity and ulti­mate protection against future infections in the country.

This is important because even though the World Health Organisation (WHO) has since May this year declared that COVID-19 no longer constitutes a public health emergency of international concern, it has not failed to state that the disease is now an established and ongoing health issue.

The WHO has therefore accepted that it is time to transition to long-term man­agement of the COVID-19 pandemic.

This is where the praise for the GHS becomes loud because it is adhering to every piece of health advice from elsewhere, which shows its collaboration with global experts in dealing with the pandemic.

The country recorded its first COVID-19 infections in March 2020, followed by more cases and deaths subse­quently.

The GHS did its best to tame the pandemic in the country by way of providing preventive protocol, including hand-washing and wearing of face mask; isolating infected people for treatment and finally vaccination.

Unfortunately, some Ghanaians held on to some conspiracy theories and avoid­ed adhering to the preventive protocol and receiving the vaccination even in the face of deaths of unfortunate infected citizens and others elsewhere.

The truth is that COVID-19 is still around and can spring surprises anytime anywhere.

This is why the GHS does not want to leave anything to chance and so continuously organises vaccination exer­cises.

Therefore, this is the time for the targeted groups to take advantage of the current vaccination exercise and save themselves from any future COVID-19 infections.

At least 60 per cent of Ghana’s over 31 million people must be vaccinated for the population to attain herd immunity.

Efforts to achieve this must not be halted because the WHO says the pandemic is no longer a public health threat of international concern.

Therefore, we implore members of the Ghanaian public who have not yet taken the COVID-19 jabs or have received only a jab to patro­nise the current exercise and help the country to achieve herd immunity so that every­one in the country will be safe in case of any resurfacing of the pandemic in the country.

Be informed that on May 18, 2023, there was an article by one Charles Buckley in the New York Times titled ‘COVID is coming back in China lockdowns are not.’

In this article, Buckley said China abruptly abandoned its draconian “zero-COVID” policies in December last year, and half a year on, COVID-19 cases again were on the rise.

China has been able to con­tain the situation though, but its case must be a caution to Ghanaians to help the GHS achieve success in its efforts for the health benefits of ev­eryone resident in the country.