GSA begins coronavirus vaccination of staff

The Ghana Standards Authority (GSA) on Friday began the vaccination of its staff against the novel coronavirus (COVID-19).

This comes at the back of government’s efforts to ensure that about 20 million Ghanaians are vaccinated against the pandemic this year.

The Director-General of the GSA, Professor Alex Dodoo, in a brief remark, said the vaccination exercise would augment efforts by the government in fighting the pandemic.

“The vaccination is one of the surest ways of getting out of the pandemic in addition to existing COVID-19 protocols. The vaccine is a very wise public health investment and would help reduce the spread of infections,” he said.

He allayed the fears of the public and encouraged them to participate in the vaccination exercise, saying the vaccines are safe.

“Before any vaccines are put on the market they go through rigorous tests to ensure that the benefits outweigh the risks they pose. I will encourage everyone who is qualified to avail themselves for the opportunity to get vaccinated,” Prof Dodoo said.

The Head of Human Resource at the GSA Boatemaa Manu-Antwi also encouraged the staff to avail themselves for the exercise so that the Authority could have a healthy workforce to carry out its mandate of developing standards and facilitating trade, testing and conformity assessment activities.

Ghana became the first country to receive the COVID-19 vaccine under the COVID-19 Vaccine Global Access Facility (COVAX) on February 24, this year.

According to the Ghana Health Service, more than 300,000 people had taken the AstraZeneca vaccine since the launch of the vaccination campaign on March 2 this year.