The Regional Directorate of the Ghana Health Service (GHS) has entreated the unvaccinated and partially vaccinated people in the region to get their COVID-19 jabs to guard against infections during the yuletide.
It noted that the end of the disease was far from sight since the virus was unpredictable and a larger proportion of the population eligible for the vaccine in the region remained unvaccinated.
“COVID-19 vaccination remains the most effective way of protecting one against the disease. The vaccines are safe, effective, and free and prevent severe illnesses, hospitalization, and deaths.
“All of us must do our part and be determined to stop COVID-19 to reduce its negative impact on people by getting vaccinated” Dr. Kwabena Sarpong, Deputy Director, Public Health made the call at a COVID-19 stakeholder's engagement in Cape Coast on Thursday.
The forum was also used to launch the 5th round of the National COVID-19 Vaccination Days Campaign (NaCVaDs) to upscale vaccination.
The exercise, which began nationally on Wednesday, December 14 will end on Sunday, December 18, targeting at least 1.4 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines to be administered nationwide.
However, in the Central Region, the exercise will capture 45 percent of its 1.9 million eligible population yet to take the jab.
It will end on Monday, December 21.
It will cover all eligible people above 15 years including pregnant women, and hundreds of vaccinators scheduled to carry out the exercise using static and mobile strategies to reach unvaccinated people.
Dr. Sarpong described the 5th round of the NaCVaDs as timely, saying the country got a spike in cases in January 2021 as many human activities happened during the festive season, hence the vaccination to prevent the occurrence.
“Let's encourage all unvaccinated people to vaccinate because the opportunity is now.
“The best gift you can give yourself, your family, and loved ones this Christmas is to vaccinate against COVID-19, so we can all stay protected,” Dr. Sarpong, advised.
He described the phenomenon of vaccine hesitancy as unfortunate and maintained that the vaccines were safe.
According to him, the spiral of misinformation and disinformation about the vaccines, pockets of hesitancy, and overstretched health workers who were responding to multiple outbreaks, including Marburg, polio, yellow fever, and monkeypox, challenged the COVID-19 vaccination efforts, but they were equal to the task.
For those fully vaccinated, Dr. Sarpong appealed to them to routinely reach out for the COVID-19 booster at least between six months and one year after being fully vaccinated.
He assured pregnant women that the vaccines would not have any consequences on their pregnancies or unborn babies (foetuses).
Dr. Sarpong stressed the need for all to join the vaccination campaign to reduce the dire consequences as well as close the gaps for COVID-19 transmission.
