Some 1.2 million eligible Ghanaians have received their Covid-19 vaccine since the exercise begun on March1, to help protect citizens against the virus.
According to the Minister of Health, Kwaku Agyeman-Manu, about 380,320 of the total number of those vaccinated have received their second dose of the vaccine.
He said the country’s target is to vaccinate 20 million Ghanaians as defined in the national Vaccine Deployment Plan.
“We aim to vaccinate 20 million (60 per cent) of Ghanaians so as to achieve heard immunity,” he said.
Mr. Agyeman-Manu was speaking at an event to mark the successful partnership for quality maternal and child health care and Covid-19 prevention on the theme, “Celebrating success and exploring more opportunities to give every child in Ghana a fair chance in life.”
The partnership between the governments of Ghana and Japan, and UNICEF, was aimed at improving the country’s health system and its response to the Covid-19 pandemic.
It undertook progjects including supporting the Universal Health Coverage drive, Ghana’s Covid-19 drive and improving maternal, neonatal, child and adolescent health services through the introduction of the maternal and child health record books.
The minister said the support will help accelerate the implementation of universal access to better and efficiently managed quality Primary Health Care Services.
“We are aware that most of these programmes implemented with the support received from the government of Japan and UNICEF have accelerated our progress towards attaining our universal health goals,” he added.
He commended the partners for the grant to enhance the country’s Covid-19 response with the provision of ultra-cold chain equipment for vaccine storage.
“This declaration of support for Ghana to improve vaccine storage capacity in line with Ghana’s Covid-19 vaccination agenda is greatly welcome as the government continues to mobilize resources towards the procurement of vaccines for our Covid-19 response,” he added.
UNICEF Representative in Ghana, Anne-Claire Dufay, in her remarks said the partnership has helped strength the country’s capacity to diagnose and treat Covid-19 patients through training on infection prevention and control, and the procurement of diagnostic equipment.
“A PCR machine has been become operational at the Eastern Regional Hospital and more than 7,000 health workers were trained. In addition, UNICEF will now procure and ship ultra-cold chain equipment to Ghana which is essential for some vaccines to be stored at very low temperatures to expand the possibilities to receive vaccines, including through the COVAX facility ,” she added.
The Ambassador of Japan to Ghana, Tsutomu Himeno expressed satisfaction about the project implementation as pledged the continuous support of the Japanese government to the people of Ghana.
By Jamila Akweley Okertchiri