380,000 children vaccinated against polio in the Volta region

Regional news for Monday, September 7, 2020

Source: Albert Kuzor, contributor

2020-09-07

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The Ghana Health Service (GHS) will carry out an immunization exercise against polio infection for children in some eight regions of the country, including the Volta region.

The vaccination is scheduled to take place in the eighteen districts of the region and will be organized from Thursday, September 10 to Sunday, September 13, 2020, with the first round and the second round on Tuesday, October 8 to Sunday, October 11, 2020.

According to the Volta regional deputy director in charge of public health, Dr. Senanu Dzokoto, although there is a zero case of the polio virus in the region, vaccination is important and should reach all children in the region between the ages of 0-5 .

He indicated that about three hundred and eighty thousand children will be vaccinated, representing twenty percent of the population of the region.

“Volta has not yet registered any case, but we are considered highly valued because there are areas with low immunization coverage. We have areas that do not have the best sanitary conditions, all our neighboring regions have registered cases, the Oti region has registered two, we also have cases in the Greater Accra region, so if we do not take the step to protect people from the Volta region, it may happen that the Volta region also starts registering polio cases. Across the country, 4.5 million children will receive this dose and in the Volta region 380,000 will receive this dose. “

Dr Dzokoto pointed this out on Sunday, September 6, 2020 at a press conference on exercise in Ho, where he also called on parents and guardians to welcome exercise to discourage polio infection in the region. and Ghana in general.

Volta Regional Disease Control Officer Anthony Mawuli Pani announced that phase one and two of the immunization took place in about eight regions of the country prior to the COVID-19 outbreak, so phase three will take place in the eight remaining regions that are; Volta, Ashanti, Central, East, Greater Accra, Upper West, Western and Western North region.

Exercise amid COVID-19

Dr. Senanu Dzokoto indicated that the GHS and the Ministry of Health have implemented the necessary measures so that vaccinators can exercise safely against the new coronavirus.

“To prevent the direct and indirect effects of COVID-19 on health, the health service has adapted measures to ensure that all health personnel provide all routine services in an absolutely safe environment. The teams that will go around to vaccinate all the children will strictly adhere to the COVID-19 security protocols and the measures were effectively implemented, they have received all the logistics they require for all the teams that we are going to deploy in the region ”and He added that “each member of the team will receive a mask and alcohol-based hand sanitizers to clean their hands before and after vaccinating each child,” he said.

He also revealed that active cases of the coronavirus in the region remained extremely low in the past eight weeks, adding that there are currently eight active cases in the Volta Region, “so most of our districts don’t actually have any. active case of COVID “. -19 ”

The exercise will also be organized in public gatherings, such as churches, festivals among other social gatherings in addition to door-to-door vaccination.