At least six more persons have died of COVID-19 taking Ghana’s death toll to 594, health officials announced on Friday.
The country’s active cases have dropped further to 5,419 after 455 new coronavirus cases were confirmed at the laboratories.
As at 23 February 2021, the Ghana Health Service (GHS) reports that the country’s total confirmed cases increased to 82,586 out of which 76,573 have recovered.
So far, 87 persons are in severe condition while 31 remain critical, according to GHS. Cases detected at the Kotoka International Airport (KIA) are 1,221 with 1,074 recoveries.
Breakdown of regional cases:
Greater Accra Region – 47,029
Ashanti Region – 14,324
Western Region – 5,143
Eastern Region – 3,668
Central Region – 2,884
Volta Region – 1,692
Northern Region – 1,155
Bono East Region – 1,114
Upper East Region – 1,093
Bono Region – 982
Western North Region – 797
Ahafo Region – 663
Upper West Region – 377
Oti Region – 274
North East Region – 98
Savannah Region – 72
Eight-week intervals for second shot
Meanwhile, Ghana has settled on eight weeks as the interval to administer the second shot of AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine as part of its immunization strategy, officials have said.
This means all the 600,000 persons who will be immunized in the country from 2 March would have to wait for another two months before getting the second dose of the vaccine.
Dr Kwame Amponsa-Achiano, programme manager for the Expanded Programme on Immunisation at the Ghana Health Service (GHS) confirmed the move in an interview with Kojo Mensah on The Asaase Breakfast Show on Thursday 25 February.
“The manufacturer recommends that the second shot (AstraZeneca vaccine) should be given between four and 12 weeks, then there were further studies that suggested that the longer it is the better,” he said.
Dr Amponsa-Achiano added: “So there is a guideline from the strategic group of advisors called SAGE, who advise WHO on matters of immunisation and related technology, so they have come out with a guide that because further studies have suggested that the longer the better, we in Ghana have settled on eight weeks.”
According to him, the decision was taken to ensure a good interval to get a better response and also ensure people comply with the timeline for taking the vaccine.
Dr Amponsa-Achiano explained that they will deploy a temporary mobile clinic for the vaccination exercise instead of a house-to-house method adopted for some immunisation.
He further assured the public that the vaccines are safe.
Meanwhile, government is in the process of establishing a call centre to receive complaints and answer questions on the immunisation exercise.
Fred Dzakpata
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