● Dr Amponsa-Achiano speaking to the media

The Manager of the Expand­ed Programme on Immuni­sation (EPI) at the Ghana Health Service (GHS), Dr Kwame Amponsa-Achiano, has called on the public not to let their guards down as COVID-19 is still preva­lent and dangerous.

Consequently, he urged those who have not taken the COVID-19 vaccine to do so to protect them­selves from the life-threatening disease.

“Currently about 45 per cent of the population had been vacci­nated and we need more people to come out and take the vaccine because COVID-19 is not gone,” he stated.

He made the remarks at Budg­IT Ghana’s COVID-19 Transparency and Accountability Project (CTAP) forum held in Accra on Friday.

BudgIT Ghana is a civil organ­isation focused on citizen and institutional engagements to facilitate societal change.

The CTAP initiative, sought to bring together stakeholders in the health sector to dialogue on vaccine equity, distribution and accountability following studies conducted by the outfit on the subject.

According to Dr Ampon­sa-Achiano, the meeting would go a long way to ensure that majority of the population were vaccinated.

“For now, 14.2 million persons had taken at least a single dose of the vaccine, though our target is 18.6 million of eligible per­sons,” he stated.

He added that, 11.1 million people had also been fully vacci­nated and urged those who took only a single dose to complete the dosage required.

“As far as we are concerned, we had gone far though we are yet to achieve our target. The challenge is that people think COVID-19 is gone. There are also people who are just not both­ered, while misinformation about the vaccine is also a challenging factor,” he stressed.

“We are trying to make COVID-19 vaccine a routine one so that people can walk into health centres and take it just like a child’s vaccination is done. We would also continue to engage the public,” he said.

The Country Manager for BudgIT Ghana, Mr Felix Ankrah added that it was essential to ensure accountability as far as vaccine distribution was con­cerned.

“We would continue to work with stakeholders to ensure an even distribution of vaccines across the country,” he stated.

The issue of vaccine shortage, he said, would be a thing of the past if the government and other stakeholders worked together.

CTAP Project Lead for BudgIT Ghana, Jennifer Moffat explained that, they were also committed to setting the agenda for robust primary healthcare in Ghana.

 By Michael D. Abayateye