The Western Regional Public Health Directorate has said it is expecting to vaccinate an additional 149, 095 individuals in the region under the National Immunisation Programme.
The five-day exercise dubbed, “Better late than Never” will cover pregnant women and children above 15 years as well as Muslims who may be going through the fasting period.
It will also include persons yet to receive a first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, a person due for a second dose or a person due for a booster.
She further indicated that the exercise will start on April 21 and will end on April 25.
Dr Gifty Amugi, Western Regional Public Health Director at a Press Conference to open the five-day National Immunisation Programme in the region said door to door, home visits, religious and recreational gatherings and schools have been targeted for the exercise.
She reiterated that the vaccine was safe and said, “the vaccines are generally safe and efficacious to protect you against the COVID-19 virus.”
The vaccine, she said has the ability to protect against the virus and ward off any catastrophic effects of the current and emerging variants of the virus.
Touching on the regional situation of COVID-19, Dr Amugi announced that statistics show that 26.3 per cent of the fully vaccinated had received the booster doses and 43.9 per cent had received at least a dose with only 3.1 per cent having received a booster.
The figures, according to her, implied that 56.1 per cent of the eligible population in the region were yet to receive a dose hence the need to enhance regional protection against the COVID-19 virus.
She lamented that the erroneous perception that COVID-19 was no more was accounting for the vaccine hesitancy and resistance among the populace.
However, she stated that the Health Directorate has resolved to increase the percentage of the eligible population who are fully vaccinated and that achieving herd immunity will mean that a significant percentage of the eligible population will have to be fully vaccinated.
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