GMA calls for urgent vaccine deployment

Dr Justice Yankson, Secretary General, GMA

The Ghana Medical Association (GMA) has urged the government to speed up the rollout of available vaccines in the country to immunize more people and curb the spread of infections.

“We will face a huge problem if we do not break the chain of transmission,” Dr Justice Yankson, secretary general of the Association, told the Ghanaian News Agency in an interview in Accra on Wednesday.

He said the Delta variant, which is largely the cause of the increase in infections, comes with a high viral load and a high disease burden.

Dr Yankson said that currently health facilities and human resources dealing with moderate to severe cases of COVID-19 are overloaded and centers are becoming full.

He encourages the public to wear their face masks at all times, wash their hands regularly with soap under running water, respect social distancing and disinfect their hands often to help curb the spread of the disease.

Dr Yankson praised Mr Henry Quartey, Regional Minister for Greater Accra for ordering municipal, metropolitan and district assemblies to bring about the arrest of people not following COVID-19 protocols.

An update of COVID-19 cases on the Ghana Health Service page showed that as of August 7, Ghana had recorded 892 deaths from COVID-19 with 109,022 confirmed cases.
Currently, the number of active cases stands at 6,765 with 345 new cases.

The GMA in a press release released 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 a further exponential increase in the number of Covid-19 cases and the resulting pressure on the already overburdened and fragile health system, as well as on the national economy, cannot be overestimated or under -valued.

He further called for an urgent intensification of free and improved COVID testing in communities, especially in all identified COVID-19 hotspots, for contact tracing as well as strict isolation and management of all people. infected in designated centers.