The Ghana Health Service (GHS) has published new measures to combat the coronavirus pandemic in Ghana ahead of the holiday season.
The guidelines include steps to vaccinate as many people as possible before Christmas, which falls on December 25.
According to a press statement released by the GHS on Thursday, December 9, “all persons, 18 years and above, arriving in Ghana will be required to provide evidence of full vaccination for Covid-19 vaccines.”
“All unvaccinated Ghanaians and residents of Ghana who are currently outside the country and intend to return within 14 days from the midnight of 12 December 2021 are exempted. However, they would be vaccinated on arrival at the airport.”
It added, “all Ghanaians traveling out of the country are to be fully vaccinated effectively 12th midnight 2021.”
The GHS has designated the month of December as a vaccination month.
Dr Patrick Kumah-Aboagye, Director-General of the GHS, said during a press conference in Accra on Sunday, November 28, said vaccination was the most effective strategy to combat the virus.
He also said that the authorities would boost monitoring at Kotoka International Airport over the Christmas season to ensure that Covid infections do not increase.
He also said that the errors committed in December of last year, which resulted in an increase in infections in January of this year, would not be repeated.
At the KIA, there will be “strict enforcement of the protocols.” We are going to increase surveillance. We are expecting an increased number of people to arrive in the country.
“We are going to ensure that our logistics are prepared, we will continue our surveillance to be able to look at that, we are going to look at isolation centers,” he said.
He added “Our contact tracing will be strengthened.
“We are going to engage with religious organizations to ensure that activities in done in Christmas are in accordance with Covid protocols.”
Dr. Anthony Nsia Asare, Presidential Advisor on Health, has allayed the fears of those who are concerned about the possible negative effects of the covid vaccine.
He claimed that experiencing headaches, bodily pains, and other symptoms is typical. These are signs that the vaccine is working well in the body, according to him.
“If you are vaccinated and you feel slight headache it means the vaccine is working very well,” he said on the Key Points on TV3 Saturday, December 4 with Dzifa Bampoh.
Dr. Nsia Asare also asked everybody who has not yet received their immunizations to do so in order to save their own and others’ lives.
Ghana, in his opinion, cannot afford to go through the fourth wave of the coronavirus pandemic, thus the government, via the Ghana Health Service (GHS), has stepped up the vaccine campaign in order to inoculate as many people as possible.
Vaccination centers, he stated, are being created closed to the people in the communities including market areas to make it easier for them to go through the exercise.
“We cannot afford a fourth wave,” he stated, adding that “if you get vaccinated, we can all do this together.”
Read Also: COPEC encourages GOIL to rethink its decision to withdraw from AOMCs
SOURCE: 3NEWS
