GHS declares 12 Regions in Ghana as Covid Free

Twelve regions in the country have been declared Covid free by the Ghana Health Service (GHS).

The regions are; Western, Western North, Central, Eastern, Ahafo and Bono East regions. The rest are Volta, Oti, Northern, Savannah, Upper West and North East regions.

According to the Director General of GHS, Dr Patrick Kuma-Aboagye, presently these regions do not have any Covid-19 cases.

“Currently,twelve regions do not have any active cases. They don’t have any case at all,” he said.

He made this known at a press conference organised by the Ministry of Information in Accra yesterday.

The conference was to update the media on Ghana’s situation so far, after the easing of the restrictions by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo on March 28, this year.

Aside Dr Kuma-Aboagye, other GHS personnel present at the briefing were the Director of Health Promotions, Dr Aboagye Dacosta, Director of Public Health, Dr Franklin Asiedu, Head of Expanded Programme on Immunisation, Dr Kwame Amponsah Achianu and the Head of Disease Surveillance, Dr Dennis Laryea.

Some of the issues the GHS Director touched on were the country’s performance with regards to vaccination, as well as how the land borders, sea and airport are faring,after the easing of the restrictions.

Twelve regions having no Covid-19 cases suggest that the remaining four, namely Greater Accra, Ashanti, Upper East and Bono regions are the areas with cases.

But Dr Kuma-Aboagye noted that even the cases in these four regions are very few, because unlike other countries where the pandemic is still severe, Ghana is currently recording low cases with a weekly average of five cases.

He also said that even the few cases are not critical or severe and praised the country for achieving such a record.

He, however, noted that because of the ease of restrictions, majority of the citizens have stopped practising the safety measures that were put in place, including vaccination.

He said vaccination intake has reduced drastically and that only a little over 14 million people have been vaccinated so far.

He noted that out of this total figure, those who have been fully vacinnated are 5,807,263 while those who have received just a dose are 9,491,108 and advised that such people should try and get the second dose.

On geographic bases, Dr Kuma-Aboagye noted that 62.3% of those who have been vaccinated are in the urban centers, whilst 37.7 are rural folks.

Analysing the figures on demographic bases, the Director General noted that more females have been vaccinated as against males. He said the vaccinated females are 54.2% while the males are only 45.8%.

With the reduction in vaccination, the GHS Director General took time to outline measures his outfit has put in place to ensure that more people get vaccinated in the ensuing months.

He said a special vaccination exercises will be organised at schools, churches, stadia, durbars, festivals and other social gatherings.

He also said that the advocacy on vaccination will be enhanced and regular vaccinations across all centres will be continued.

The GHS Director also said that though the restrictions have been eased, the disease is still around and recommended that people should wear the mask when they find themselves in congested places.

He advised schools especially to observe the mask wearing protocol since it’s a place where people converge on regular basis.

Source: Agnes Ansah || The Chronicle