A healthy screening was organized by the German Cooperation (GIZ) for the public at the fourth court of the Accra Metropolitan Assembly Gardens.
The screening funfar was to officially mark the national COVID-19 vaccination certificate campaign closeout.
The joint campaign which was in collaboration with the African German Health Association and the Ghana Health Service, was to generate interest and increase COVID-19 vaccination uptake amongst the public.
It also sought to dispel the misconception about the COVID-19 vaccines to reduce vaccine hesitancy.
The funfair was marked by health screening, counselling sessions, drama performances and among others.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), vaccines remain the most important tool for countries to overcome the pandemic and to get on the path to recovery, towards socio-economic development.
In addressing the press at the event, Ms Ariane Von Maercker, Co-Lead Support to the Local Vaccine Production and Responsible for the German’s Last Mile Initiative said despite the importance of the COVID -19 vaccine, there were still widespread misconceptions on the CoVID-19 pandemic and the vaccination, hence the campaign.
To her the national campaign as part of the German Last Mile Initiative sought to rapidly increase global COVID-19 vaccine coverage and uptake.
She noted that Germany provided 224 million EUR for bilateral projects world wide and direct support vaccination campaign and overall, more than 1.3 billion EUR was made available in 2022 to help end the pandemic.
She stated that as part of closeout ceremony, GIZ Ghana donated several laptops, desktops, tablets, printers, and cameras to the Ghana Health Service.
The equipments is intended to strengthen the use of digital health information system, help to detect people infected with COVID-19 to ensure that they receive the best treatment and to follow-up with their contact persons she said.
The Director of Health Promotion, Ghana Health Service Dr. Aboagye Dacosta said from July to September 2022, partners of the campaign have worked closely to increase public awareness on the importance of COVID-19 vaccination.
Ghana over the three month campaign period,has exceeded the national target of vaccinating 20 million people to 21 million as of November 2022.
As of 25th November a total of 21, 163,810 doses of COVID -19 vaccines have been administerd and at last 12,155, 754 tonnes, representing 38 per cent of the population have received a dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, he indicated…..Story by Bugbila Moadow.
