The Ghana Health Service (GHS) is expected to begin the administration of Johnson & Johnson Covid-19 vaccine in the country’s infection hotspot, the Greater Accra Region, on Friday, August 13, 2021.
The service will also administer doses of the vaccine in the Ashanti Region beginning Monday, August 16, 2021.
“We are hopeful that at least the Greater Accra Region will start [vaccination] on Friday. (Vaccines for) Kumasi will be leaving here today (Thursday), so it will not be realistic for Ashanti to start tomorrow (Friday)… hopefully by Monday, they should also be able to start,” said the manager of Ghana’s expanded programme on Immunisation, Dr. Kwame Amponsa-Achiano.
The vaccine shots will be given out in 11 districts; seven in the Greater Accra Region and four in the Greater Kumasi metro.
The GHS said it will be targeting persons at higher risk with the Johnson & Johnson vaccines emphasing that the service will not be offering the Johnson & Johnson jabs to persons who have previously received the AstraZeneca vaccine.
“We are still looking at the most at risk. Of course, we are also pursuing additional vaccines for them. Everybody is at risk, but there are more vulnerable people, and so that is what we are looking at now,” Dr. Amponsa-Achiano explained.
Ghana took delivery of 177,600 doses of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine on August 7 as part of the first batch of the Africa Union’s African Vaccine Acquisition Trust (AVAT).
So far, only 405,971 have been fully vaccinated by receiving both doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine, whilst 865,422 have received only the first dose.
Ghana currently has 6,545 active cases of Covid-19.
By Jamila Akweley Okertchiri