President Nana Addo-Dankwa Akufo-Addo has indicated that Ghana’s COVID-19 vaccination programme has been scheduled to take off in 43 Districts which have become epicenters of the virus.
According to the president who said this in his 24th update to the nation on measures taking by his government against the spread of COVID-19, these 43 districts include twenty-five (25) in Greater Accra, sixteen (16) in Ashanti, and two (2) in the Central Region.
” It will be conducted in forty-three (43) districts, which are the epi-centres of the pandemic in the country. They are twenty-five (25) in Greater Accra, sixteen (16) in Ashanti, and two (2) in the Central Region. The Ghana Health Service, as from tomorrow, will give precise details,” Nana Akufo-Addo said.
The vaccinations are scheduled to start from March 2 with the Ghana Health Service deploying about twelve thousand and seventy-one (12,471) vaccinators, thirty-seven thousand, four hundred and thirteen (37,413) volunteers, and two thousand, and seventy-nine (2,079) supervisors for the entire vaccination campaign.
The vaccination will target groups 1 and 2 according to the risk categorization by the Ghana Health Service.
Groups
Group 1 is categorised as “persons most at risk and frontline State officials”. It includes healthcare workers, frontline security personnel, persons with underlying medical conditions, persons sixty (60) years and above, and frontline members of the Executive, Legislature and Judiciary.
Group 2 is made up of other essential service providers and the rest of the security agencies. It includes water and electricity supply services, teachers and students, supply and distribution of fuels, farmers and food value chain, telecommunications services, air traffic and civil aviation control services, meteorological services, air transport services, waste management services, media, public and private commercial transport services, the Police Service, Armed Forces, Prisons Service, Immigration Service, National Fire Service, CEPS Division of the Ghana Revenue Authority, and other members of the Executive, Judiciary, and Legislature.
Group 3 consists of the rest of the general public, that is all persons over eighteen (18) years, except for pregnant women. The final group, that is Group 4, will include pregnant mothers and persons under the age of eighteen (18), and they will be vaccinated when an appropriate vaccine, hopefully, is found, or when enough safety data on the present vaccines is available. Special arrangements will be made for persons with disabilities who fall within these groups.