Accra, May 19, GNA – The administration of the second jab of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine to about 360,000 persons who received the first jab in March this year, commenced in 43 selected districts in the Greater Accra, Ashanti and Central region today, Wednesday May 19.
Those qualified to receive the jab are; Healthcare Workers, Frontline security personnel, the Media, Persons with underling health conditions, the aged, frontline members of the Executive, Legislature, Judiciary and other essential service providers.
The ongoing exercise which will end on May 26 is expected to boost immunity and ensure maximum protection of persons to be vaccinated.
At the Nurses and Midwifery Council (NMC) Vaccination centre, Mr Felix Nyante, Registrar of the NMC, congratulated Ghana and President Nana Addo for securing vaccine doses for sections of the public to receive their second jab.
“This is commendable because if you read around the world, you will notice that not all countries have been able to benefit from the COVID-19 vaccination.”
He admonished the public to support the vaccination process and get vaccinated when it’s their turn.
Mr Nyante encouraged the public to take their second dose without any fear and panic and called on all nurses, midwives and all health workers who have received their first jabs to go for their second.
At the NMC, the process went on smoothly without any delay, persons who took their jabs had their cards replaced with the new cards.
Similarly, the process went on smoothly without any rush or difficulty at the Ghana International Press Centre, where most of the journalists told the Ghana News Agency (GNA) that they went through the process successfully without any stress.
At the Adabraka Polyclinic in Accra, the GNA noticed a long queue of people waiting for their turn.
The GNA observed that the vaccination centre was very busy. Some persons whose names were not found in the data bases were asked to come back on Friday.
Some persons told the GNA that they received text messages to get their second doses at the Adabraka Polyclinic although they did not receive their first jab there.
Ghana, on Tuesday, March 2, kicked off its mass COVID-19 vaccination exercise in 42 selected districts in the Greater Accra, Kumasi and Western regions.
As of Friday, April 30, a total of 849,527 AstraZeneca vaccines had been administered to the public.
Ghana recorded its first case of COVID-19 on March 12, 2020. So far 92,513 cases have been confirmed with 783 deaths. There are 1583 confirmed cases.
The novel coronavirus was first recorded in the Wuhan city of China in December 2019.
Coronaviruses are a large group of viruses that are common among animals. In rare cases, they are what scientists call zoonotic, meaning they can be transmitted from animals to humans, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
It has an incubation period of four to six days and fatal, especially for those with a weakened immune system – the elderly and the very young. It could also result in pneumonia and bronchitis.
GNA