The Ghana Health Service (GHS) has revealed that large quantities of vaccines allocated to the Volta region expired due to hesitancy among the people to vaccinate.
According to the Manager of the Expanded Programme of Immunisation at the GHS, Dr. Kwame Amponsah Achiano, the refusal of Voltarians to vaccinate will defy government’s aim to vaccinate over 15 million Ghanaians by the end of December this year.
Speaking at a leadership dialogue series organised by the Centre for Social Justice, Dr. Kwame Amponsah Achiano, called on stakeholders to ensure this challenge is overcome in the Volta Region
“We had a lot of vaccines in the Volta region. Unfortunately, because of hesitancy, we had a lot of them expiring and so we would be happy if senior people like you will support the Volta region in overcoming this,” Myjoyonline.com quoted.
“We made a lot of vaccines available and I believe that when you do the background checks, you’d realise that quite a number of our vaccines expired in the Volta region of Ghana,” Dr. Achiano said.
He adds that the government’s motive before the end of the year is to ensure every Ghanaian who has not been vaccinated will be vaccinated, he adds that plans are being put in place to ensure the vaccination aim is achieved.
“The focus of the programme is to get people, who are yet to be vaccinated, vaccinated. We thought we could do about 15 million before the end of the year but if you look at the trajectory, it may not be likely that we would achieve that
“We are putting together the plan and eventually it has to go to the COVID-19 task force for ratification before we do that; so it is in the plan,” he added.
Meanwhile, the GHS has revealed that over 7.5 million Ghanaians have been vaccinated so far.
Director of health promotion at the Ghana Health Service, Dr Aboagye Dacosta, added that more Ghanaians are expected to be vaccinated by the close of 2021 as December has been declared the month of vaccination.
To achieve this, the ministry will embark on a house to house vaccination, be present at church activities and other gatherings to ensure more Ghanaians are vaccinated by the end of the year.
Source: www.ghanaweb.com
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