GHANA – The Ghana Health Service, in collaboration with the United States’ Centers of Disease Control and Prevention, has commissioned the third Public Health Emergency Operations Center in Ghana.

The Center will strengthen the public sector to effectively respond to health emergencies.

Speaking at the commissioning of the facility, the Director-General of the Ghana Health Service revealed the facility will serve as a footprint for technical coordination of the health emergencies and response structure.

Dr. Patrick Kuma-Aboagye said the health center will also serve as a source of event-specific data which can be analyzed for evidence-based decision making.

“The third public health emergency operations center will also help health security in Ghana,” he noted.

International health regulation requires all countries to strengthen and maintain their capacity, to respond promptly and effectively to public health diseases and emergencies.

The emergency operation center is part of the US government’s support project to Ghana’s disease surveillance and response infrastructure.

The US Ambassador to Ghana, Stephanie Sullivan, commended the Ghana Health Service for the collaboration with the US government.

The US- Ghana bilateral partnership, has grown stronger through sharing technical expertise and approving critical infrastructure, that has allowed Ghana to rapidly respond to COVID -19. I commend the Ghana Health Service, Ashanti Regional Minister for their continuous collaboration” she said.

On the other hand, Ghana is still recording new cases of COVID-19 although, at marginal rates. Latest update from the GHS indicates that 265 new cases were recorded as of September 17, 2021, from six out of the country’s 16 regions.

So far, Ghana has secured over 3.2 million vaccines for its COVID-19 vaccine deployment programme.

Despite initial challenges in vaccine acquisition, which stalled vaccination, government said it remained on course to achieve at least 60 per cent herd exercise by vaccinating 20 million Ghanaians by the end of 2021.

Yesterday, the Ghana Health Service (GHS), announced resumption of the administration of AstraZeneca, COVID-19 vaccines to eligible persons.

We have received about 182,187 doses of AstraZeneca vaccines to administer in this one-week exercise and looking at the level of positive response we have received since we began vaccination, we hope to exhaust this sooner than anticipated,” Regional Director of Health, Dr Charity Sarpong, said.

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