After weeks of vaccine shortage, the Ghana Health Service (GHS) on Monday morning, March 13 begun the widespread immunization of children across the country.

This comes after BCG, polio, and measles vaccines were delivered to the Ghana Health Service on Sunday.

JoyNews’ Hannah Odame who visited some health centres in Accra, reports that at the Adabraka Polyclinic, about 16 mothers had visited the centre to have their children vaccinated as at 9:00am on Monday.

At the Maamobi polyclinic, there was a massive campaign for parents to bring their children for vaccination.

In the Volta Region, the Acting Regional Director of the Health Services, Dr. Senanu Djokoto says the vaccination exercise will begin on Tuesday.

Speaking on the vaccination exercise, the Director General of the Ghana Health Service Dr. Patrick Kumah Aboagye says parents can now make their children available for vaccination.

He urged them to send their children when they are due.

“The first batch of the vaccines just arrived and we have doses in BCG, oral polio vaccine and then the measles vaccine. They just arrived with the accessories, syringes, safety boxes. Immediately, they are being discharged to the regions and then vaccinations will start across the country,” he said.

According to him, as the Service has received the first consignment, he hopes the others come in soon.

He assured that the quantity received per the first consignment will be enough for a minimum of six weeks immunisation across the country.

Meanwhile, as the Northern Region has recorded over 100 measles cases during the period of shortage, a Consultant Pediatrician at Tamale Teaching Hospital, Prof. Alhassan Abdul-Munin, wants the GHS to prioritise areas currently experiencing measles outbreaks.

This, he explained, is because vaccine coverage in hard-to-reach areas is traditionally lower than in urban areas.

“I would also think that they should target where we are already having the outbreak situations, because in Northern Region for instance, we did a study during the peak of the Covid-19 and then we realised that during those times that the vaccines are available the uptake was very low…so these are children that they may not have been due just within the last five or six months but actually they were due for vaccination during the Covid-19 period and they never had it,” he explained.

He also called on the government to address the root cause of the vaccine shortage to prevent a recurrence.