At least nine more persons have died of COVID-19 taking Ghana’s death toll to 542, health officials announced on Monday.
The country’s active cases now stand at 7,850 after 656 new coronavirus cases were confirmed at the laboratories.
As at 11 February 2021, the Ghana Health Service (GHS) reports that the country’s total confirmed cases increased to 76, 492 out of which 68,100 have recovered.
So far, 87 persons are in severe situation while 31 remain critical, according to GHS. Cases detected at the Kotoka International Airport (KIA) are 1,175 with 973 recoveries.
Breakdown of regional cases
Greater Accra Region – 44,580
Ashanti Region – 13,641
Western Region – 4,442
Eastern Region – 3,299
Central Region – 2,664
Volta Region – 1,323
Bono East Region – 951
Northern Region – 827
Upper East Region – 814
Bono Region – 779
Western North Region – 747
Ahafo Region – 625
Oti Region – 258
Upper West Region – 257
Savannah Region – 68
North East Region – 42
Accra and Kumasi to get first vaccines
The two main COVID-19 hotspots in the country, Greater Accra and Ashanti Regions, will be first beneficiaries of vaccines yet to arrive, the Ghana Health Service (GHS) has said.
Speaking in an interview with Nana Yaa Mensah on The Asaase Breakfast Show on Monday (15 February), Dr Kwame Amponsah Achiano, Programme Manager of Expanded Immunization Programme at the Ghana Health Service said the plan is to first target the hotspots.
“We have also prioritised the hotspots and so the initial dose is basically going to be given to Greater Accra Metro and Kumasi Metro because that is the hotspots, so that is what the plan is,” he said.
Dr Achiano added: “For these hotspots that is the segmentation, it is not a nationwide thing, because for 355, 000 doses if you add the cover, it will not cover the whole nation.”
Cost of vaccination
Touching on expenses, Dr Achiano said it is estimated that vaccinating one person will cost USD$3.
“So, I can talk of the 355,000 but from the top of my head we have estimated USD$3 per person vaccinated which translates to about USD$1.5 per initial vaccination because everybody is going to get two,” Dr Achiano said.
He added: “And so you can multiply that by the number of persons vaccinated and you get the total cost, $51.7 million is for the entire 20 million and if we get the operational cost for delivering two doses at different interval and this include everything else plus even the cold chain facility.”
Currently, the average cost of COVID-19 vaccine from AstraZeneca is between USD$4 and USD$7.
Fred Dzakpata
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