COVID-19 is not yet over - Dr Djimatey

Dr Moses Barima Djimatey, the North East Regional Deputy Director of the Ghana Health Service (GHS) in charge of Public Health, has admonished residents in the Region to participate in the fifth round of the COVID-19 nationwide vaccination exercise.

He said even though the pandemic in the country had seen significant improvement over the past couple of months, “We also know that globally, we are not yet out of the woods. COVID-19 is not over yet, and we need to protect ourselves.”

Dr Djimatey gave the advice when he addressed stakeholders at the Regional launch of the National COVID-19 vaccination campaign in Nalerigu, capital of the Region.

The campaign launch was on the theme: “Protect yourself, protect your family, and get vaccinated against COVID19” and the goal of the campaign was to reach out and vaccinate all eligible members of the population who were 15 years and above with potent COVID-19 vaccines.

Dr Djimatey said all persons aged 15 years and above, who had not vaccinated against COVID-19, including pregnant women, persons who had not completed their vaccinations, and had not taken booster doses, were eligible for the vaccine.

He said with diseases of epidemic potential, all that was necessary for escalation of infections was the accumulation of a sizeable population of non-immune individuals.

“To prevent this situation from occurring, which fuels infection spread, the Ministry of Health, the GHS and partners, have scheduled another round of vaccination campaign prior to the upcoming Christmas and New Year festivities,” he said.

The vaccination exercise is scheduled to commence today, December 14 to 18, 2022 with a targeted population of 30,660 residents across the Region.

Dr Djimatey said “In all, 90 teams of vaccinators and volunteers, and 64 supervisors at different levels have been recruited and trained to undertake this exercise for the campaign period.

“Vaccination teams shall mount static sessions at various locations as well as move from house-to-house to vaccinate eligible members of the community from 0700hours to 1700hours each day,” he added.

He said the vaccines were safe, and would be administered by trained health professionals, noting that the exercise was free, and urged all eligible persons to vaccinate at the nearest posts.

Dr Djimatey recalled that the COVID-19 vaccination campaigns started in March 2021, and the targeted population in the Region at the time to be vaccinated was 605,876, representing 72 per cent of the population.

He said the Region had successfully undertaken four rounds of the National COVID-19 immunization exercises, and achieved 69 per cent of vaccination coverage.

That, he noted was the highest successful coverage across the country, adding that regardless of their challenges as a new Region, “We are the highest performing in the country as far as COVID-19 vaccination is concerned with the 69 per cent fully vaccinated.”

The Deputy Director said management of the GHS in the Region would continue to work and uphold the position it had over the months achieved with the support of relevant stakeholders.