Kumasi, Nov. 22, GNA – The Ashanti Regional Health Directorate has begun vaccinating students above 15 years with Pfizer-Biontech vaccines as part of efforts to stop the spread of COVID-19 in schools in the Region.
This follows an arrangement between the Ghana Health Service (GHS) and Ghana Education Service (GES) to cover students between that age range, who have not been vaccinated.
Because previous and ongoing vaccinations have been targeting persons who are 18 years and above, this exercise seeks to protect students who have not received any COVID-19 vaccine because they are below 18 years.
Teams of vaccinators, according to the Directorate, have been deployed to various schools to oversee the exercise in collaboration with school authorities.
Dr Michael Rockson Adjei, the Deputy Director in charge of Public Health, told the Ghana News Agency (GNA) that there were enough vaccines for the exercise and called on all eligible students to participate in the exercise.
He said all COVID-19 vaccines in Ghana were safe, efficacious and approved by the Food and Drugs Authority (FDA).
He said vaccination was one of the effective measures to halt the spread of the disease and urged the public to disregard conspiracy theorists bent on undermining the efficacy of the vaccines.
According to him, about one million people had been vaccinated in the region but less than 3,000 had complained about side effects, which he said, was normal in every mass vaccination exercise.
He said not even one person had died as a result of the COVID-19 vaccine, saying that the vaccines protected against severe illness if one was infected and stressed the need for the public to accept the vaccines in the interest of public health.
GNA