COVID-19 vaccines safe, effective: US Ambassador assures public
The United States Ambassador to Ghana, Ms Stephanie Sullivan, has appealed to the unvaccinated population in the country to avail themselves of the jabs, stressing that all the vaccines deployed locally are safe and effective.
She said it had been proven scientifically that vaccination was the most effective way to build resilience against COVID-19, and that the vaccines provided adequate protection against severe COVID-19-related illness, hospitalisation and death.
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She made the appeal when she interacted with the people of Teshie at a vaccination centre within the Teshie Community Clinic in the Greater Accra Region yesterday.
She had visited the vaccination centre to observe the progress of the ongoing National Vaccination Days Campaign.
A number of people moved to the vaccination centre to either take their first or second jab or a booster.
Ms Sullivan was accompanied by the Director-General of the Ghana Health Service (GHS), Dr Patrick Kuma-Aboagye; the Director in charge of Public Health of the GHS, Dr Franklyn Asiedu-Bekoe; the Manager of the Expanded Programme on Immunisation, Dr Kwame Amponsa-Achiano; the Greater Accra Regional Health Director, Dr Mrs Charity Sarpong, and other managers of the GHS.
She used the opportunity to educate the public on the importance of vaccination and adherence to the safety protocols.
“The same safe and effective vaccines deployed here are given to Americans and people all over the world. Now it is up to Ghanaians to get their jabs. I beg of you to get vaccinated,” she said.
Science
Ms Sullivan also said science had proven that apart from boosting the immune system to fight the disease and other health benefits, vaccination was also a way to stop or limit mutations, considered a major challenge in the deployment of vaccines.
She said vaccination would yield maximum impact if used together with the preventive protocols such as hand washing, wearing face mask and adherence to social distancing.
“We are here to support the vaccination day’s exercise. I know Ghana has made an incredible effort in the deployment of vaccines. All together, the US has provided over seven million vaccines to the country, and we are pleased and happy with our partnership.
“Since the beginning of the pandemic, the USA has contributed more than $30 million to Ghana’s COVID-19 response, building on decades of partnership in the health sector between the two governments.
“The United States and USAID will continue to support Ghana’s COVID-19 vaccination efforts, including future donations. USAID will also support vaccine preparedness efforts, including transport of vaccines to health facilities, detailed planning, social and behaviour change activities to encourage uptake of WHO-approved COVID-19 vaccines,” she said.
GHS assurance
Dr Kuma-Aboagye said the exercise was important because it was targeting at boosting uptake towards delivering the national herd immunity target of at least 20 million people as soon as possible.
He said the "Operation 2.5 million doses in five days" campaign reflected the target of getting at least 20 per cent of the 13.2 million population that remained unvaccinated.
He said during the five-day period, the GHS and its partners had intensified public education to deal with the challenge of misinformation, disinformation and low risk perceptions.
“I want to use this opportunity to thank the American government for all the over seven million doses presented to the country and those coming from US in a couple of days. Among America’s support, it is also supporting in the deployment of the vaccines and public education,” he said.
Dr Amponsa-Achiano said the country had taken delivery of 25,858,290 doses of the five approved COVID-19 vaccines for use locally as of January 31, this year.
He said in all, 7,262,928 of the population had taken their first doses, while about 3.6 million were fully vaccinated.
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