Coronavirus mass vaccination begins today

COVID-19 vaccination begins today in 43 districts in three regions of the country.

The regions are: Greater Accra-25 districts, Ashanti-16 districts and Central-two districts.

This will mark the beginning of a nationwide exercise expected to vaccinate 20 million Ghanaians against the virus.

Front line health workers, adults aged 60 years and above, people with underlining health conditions such as diabetes, kidney diseases, hypertension, cancer, frontline security personnel, frontline government officials, and all front line workers in the formal sector are in the first group of people for the mass vaccination.

President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo and Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia, together with their spouses, showed leadership by being the first to take shots of the AstraZeneca vaccine on Monday, March 1, 2021, ahead of the mass immunisation.

The vaccination is expected to run from March to October, 2021.

A total of 12,500 vaccinators, 2,000 supervisors and 37,413 volunteers will facilitate the vaccination exercise across all Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies in the country.

Coronaviruses are a large group of viruses that are common among animals.

In rare cases, they are what scientists call zoonotic, meaning they can be transmitted from animals to humans, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

It has incubation period between 4-6 days and fatal, especially for those with weakened immune system - the elderly and the very young.

It could also result in pneumonia and bronchitis.

Ghana has since the outbreak of the pandemic in March 2020, recorded over 84, 023 cases, 77,972 recoveries and 607 deaths.

On Wednesday, February 24, Ghana became the first country in the world to receive the COVAX COVID-19 facility when it received about 600,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccines produced by the Serum Institute of India.