Director of Public Health at the Ghana Health Service (GHS), Dr Franklin Asiedu Bekoe, has disclosed that just about four per cent of the population have been fully vaccinated against Covid-19.
He also disclosed that “If you look at our data, just about 11% have taken a shot. We are way behind our target,” he told Israel Laryea on the AM Show on Tuesday.
Even though Dr Bekoe said the country has seen a fall in its daily Covid infection rate, he is urging the populace to get vaccinated.
President Akufo-Addo is hopeful that Ghana will achieve its target of vaccinating 20 million people by the end of the year despite receiving a few million doses of vaccines so far.
Speaking at the 76th session of the UN General Assembly, he said, “We’re still hoping to vaccinate 20 million of our people by the end of the year.”
Ghana’s vaccination drive has experienced a few setbacks due to a shortage of vaccines.
The President, in his address, did not state how the 20 million target was going to be achieved with a few months to end the year.
Speaking on his fear of new infections, Dr Bekoe said he is worried that new variants of the disease could emerge, causing Ghana’s infection rate to increase.
“If you look at the data we have, you will see that there is a decline in the cases over the past four weeks. This is the best time for us to get vaccinated. Otherwise, we are going down. We will get a new variant and it will go up,” he said.
“Now we have over three million doses of vaccines that are available for Ghanaians to yet, surprisingly, people are struggling to take it,” he expressed.
Dr Bekoe mentioned that GHS is taking measures to educate the public on the need to get vaccinated.
“For us as a Service, our main drive is for Ghanaians to take the vaccine. We are going from house to house for people to take the vaccine. Because the disease burden is low now, people have decided to lie back.”
Ghana’s active case count for the disease, as of October 15, 2021, is 2,434.
A total of 2,517,612 vaccine doses have also been administered, as of October 12, 2021, the Ghana Health Service has reported.