Accra, Aug.17, GNA – The administration of the Johnson and Johnson single shot COVID-19 vaccine has attracted high patronage in all the seven selected districts identified to be hotspots in the Greater Accra region.
A visit by the Ghana News Agency (GNA) to most vaccination centres on the second day of vaccination in the Greater Accra Region showed that more people had thronged the vaccination centres to take their jabs to protect themselves against the virus.
At about 3 pm on Tuesday vaccination centres in the Accra Metro District, Okiakoi North, and the Kpone Katamanso districts were still full with people as the young, old, the aged and even foreigners waited for their turn.
The GNA gathered that almost all vaccination centres in Greater Accra were given 100 jabs only to administer on the first day.
At the Korelu-Police station vaccination centre, Madam Gertrude Naa Larteley Otoo, a Superintendent Community Health Nurse and member of the vaccination team said over 12 persons were inoculated before 2 pm.
She said the process was quite slow due to the delay in the data entry process.
“The crowd here yesterday was more than today, the process is slow because we have only one tablet for data entry, we have decided to use our mobile phones for the date entry to make the process faster,” she said.
The situation was not different at the Mamprobi clinic, Mamprobi police station, the Chorkor Community Clinic, and the Kaneshie Polyclinic as there was high patronage.
Dr Kwame Amponsa- Achiano, Programme Manager for the Expanded Programme on Immunization (EPI) said the process was been smooth so far in the two regions.
He said as at Tuesday morning between 22 to 23 thousand doses of the Johnson and Johnson vaccines were administered in the four districts in the Ashanti Region since the exercise begun last Friday.
He said in all about 50,400 persons are targeted to receive their jabs in the Ashanti region, Greater Accra has as of Tuesday morning administered 15,000 doses of the vaccine, the process is going on well and we are expecting that all the 100,000 jabs be administered by Friday.
He said the administration of the second dose on the AstraZeneca would also begin next week to ensure that vaccination continues for those who have already received their first jab.
Ghana on August 7 took delivery of 177,600 doses of the Johnson & Johnson single-shot vaccine procured under the Africa Union’s African Vaccine Acquisition Trust (AVAT) bringing to 1,515,450 the total number of COVID-19 vaccine doses received in the country.
AVAT is a purchasing facility instituted by the African Union (AU) to boost the continent’s access to COVID-19 vaccines on the global market.
The Johnson and Johnson is a single-shot vaccine, it is easier and cheaper to administer, the vaccine has a long shelf-life and favourable storage conditions, and the vaccine is partly manufactured on the African continent, with fill-finish activities taking place in South Africa.
Persons who receive the jab may experience headache, fever, fatigue, muscle aches, nausea pain, irritation, redness, and swelling at the site of the injection which may last for a few hours after the vaccination.
GNA