Ghana Medical Association calls for urgent deployment of vaccines
The Ghana Medical Association (GMA) has urged the government to Fast-track the deployment of available vaccines in the country to vaccinate more people and curb the spread of infections.
“We will be in for a huge problem if we do not break the chain of transmission”,Dr Justice Yankson, General Secretary of the Association told the Ghana News Agency in an interview in Accra on Wednesday .
He said the Delta variant which is largely the cause of increase in infections comes along with a high viral load and a high burden of disease.
Dr Yankson said currently, health facilities and human resources handling moderate to severe COVID-19 cases are overstretched and the centers are becoming full.
He encourage the public to wear their face masks at all times, wash hands regularly with soap under running water, observe social distancing and sanitize hands often to help curtail the spread of the disease.
Dr Yankson commended Mr Henry Quartey, Greater Accra Regional Minister for directing Municipal, Metropolitan and District Assemblies to cause the arrest of person not adhering to the COVID-19 protocols.
An Update of COVID-19 cases on the Ghana Health Service page showed that Ghana as at August 7, recorded 892 COVID-19 deaths with 109,022 confirmed cases.
Currently the active cases stands at 6,765 with 345 new cases.
The GMA in a press statement issued on July 30, 2021, after its National Executive Meeting (NEC) said the Covid-19 situation in the country is alarming and dire especially with the rapid spread of the Delta variant in our communities.
The statement said the risk of further exponential rise in the number of Covid-19 cases and its attendant strain on the already over-stretched and fragile health system, as well as the national economy cannot be overemphasized or discounted.
It further called for an urgent scale up of free and enhanced COVID testing in communities especially in all identified COVID-19 hot spots, contact tracing as well as strict isolation and management of all infected persons at designated centers.
Source: GNA