Ghana Health Services to conclude vaccine drive
Today, the Ghana Health Service concludes its five-day COVID vaccination drive.
The vaccination exercise began November 30 as part of Ghana’s efforts at increasing vaccination rates across viruses like COVID and polio. In October, Ghana successfully concluded the second round of polio vaccinations. Coupled with the vaccination drive, Ghana implemented the Bingwa Initiative to increase awareness about the COVID vaccine and boosters. The Bingwa Initiative, led by young social media influencers advocated for COVID-19 vaccination and encouraged the youth to get their friends, families and communities to get vaccinated. The Initiative expanded across the continent to accelerate vaccination rates which were 22% for the total African population.
The vaccine drive was organized with support from the USAID/JSI VAX project, targeting 18,000 unvaccinated people in addition to individuals who have only received one dose of the COVID vaccine. Earlier vaccination efforts carried out by Ghana were highly successful, integrating yellow immunization strategies with mass COVID vaccinations.
Despite having one of the longest-running vaccination projects, less than half of Ghana’s target population of 20 million people has been vaccinated. The vaccination drive will likely support the momentum gained this year in vaccination efforts and contribute to increased vaccination rates supported by improved advocacy, and community awareness.
