The Ranking Member on Parliament’s Health Committee, Kwabena Mintah Akandoh, is urging the government to vary its vaccination strategy amid rising cases of COVID-19.

According to him, the government’s unfocused vaccination plan and the refusal to continue the public testing regime provides no hope for the country’s fight against COVID-19.

“As I stand here as the Ranking Member on the Parliamentary Select Committee on Health, if you ask me when we are going to roll out the next vaccination plan, the answer is I don’t know, and the worst of it all is that we have stopped doing testing. Now, if you have a positive case, it takes you the patient to go and test your relatives. The only way we can arrest the rise in the active cases is vaccination,” he said.

What is Ghana’s current COVID-19 situation?
There has been a steady rise in the number of cases in recent days, after it dropped below 500 a few weeks ago.

The country currently has an active case count of 2,314 after recording 143 new cases on July 9, 2021, per the latest update from the Ghana Health Service.

Since the outbreak of the pandemic in the country on March 12, 2020, a total of 97,728 cases have been recorded.

Out of this number, 94,612 persons have recovered from the disease and 802 persons have succumbed to it.

Enforce adherence to COVID-19 protocols to curb spread of Delta variant – NCCE
Recently, the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE), asked the police to enforce strict adherence to the COVID-19 protocols to prevent the spread of the highly contagious COVID-19 strain, Delta.

“The Commission urges the Ghana Police Service to enforce strict adherence to the COVID-19 prevention protocols to curb the spread of the Delta variant,” the NCCE said in a statement.

The NCCE also called on Ghanaians to strictly observe the laid down public health safety protocols.

It explained that its call had been necessitated by a disregard of the COVID-19 protocols by the majority of Ghanaians.

“The NCCE is disturbed about the general disinterest and disregard for the COVID-19 safety protocols among the Ghanaian public in various places and spaces.”

“In spite of the stringent measures outlined by the government to manage the spread of the virus, including the mandatory wearing of masks; social distancing protocols at public events; the rigorous public education; the maximum number of 100 participants at gatherings, it appears citizens have reverted to their lifestyle prior to the global pandemic.

The Ghana Health Service has already detected the Delta variant within the Ghanaian population, with cases recorded at the Achimota School.

The Delta variant was initially said to have been contained at the Kotoka International Airport after it was detected among some travellers.