The Head of Disease Surveillance at Ghana Health Service (GHS) has disclosed that 449,171 persons have received the Oxford/AstraZeneca jab.

Dr Franklin Asiedu-Bekoe who disclosed this to Mamavi Owusu-Aboagye host of Joy News' AM Show, said the data is as of 7 pm on March 17.

This data comes about two weeks after mass vaccination against Covid-19 began at various health centres in Greater Accra, Ashanti and Central regions on March 2.

Dissecting the vaccinated population by regions that were severely hit by the novel coronavirus, he stated that 187,510 people have been vaccinated in the Ashanti Region, 11,293 in the Central Region, and 250, 368 in the Greater Accra Region.

He also said due to vaccine hesitancy, the Service did not strictly abide by the segmented approach, whereby a segmented part of the population was supposed to receive their vaccine in turns.

The first group of people who were supposed to take their jab were front line health workers, adults aged 60 years and above, people with underlining health conditions such as diabetes, kidney diseases, hypertension and cancer.

Others were frontline security personnel, frontline government officials, and all front line workers in the formal sector.

Giving a breakdown of the segmented population that have received the jab so far, Dr Asiedu-Bekoe said that 87,092 persons of the general population 18 years and above, 72,332 health workers, as well as 63,033 people with underlying conditions.

Also, 3,063 people working in the media space have received their jab, as well as 18,000 teachers across the country.

He further stated that in terms of vaccine coverage, he believes the GHS has achieved their target by 80 per cent, although the data for the vaccination exercise has not been fully entered into the database.

"But we think that it’s good for us. It’ll help us address the vaccine hesitancy. Because they[people who have taken the jab] will go to their friends and relatives and tell them that the vaccine is safe and it works."

Adding that the GHS is fully on course and is hoping to vaccinate more than 500,000 people at the end of the mass vaccination exercise.

Joy News' 'Covid-19 Vaccination roll-out conversation' on the AM show was by Star Ghana Foundation with funding from the UKAid.