Some residents of the Ashanti region who are needle-phobic have managed to surmount their fears to participate in the ongoing Covid-19 vaccination exercise.

They say their decision was informed by the risks associated with the Covid-19 pandemic.

Among the patrons are elderly women who have defied all odds to be vaccinated under Phase 2 of the exercise.

Ashanti Region is wrapping up Phase 2 of the vaccination exercise in which 461,908 doses of Moderna and Pfizer vaccines are being administered in several designated centers.

The exercise appeared to have been met with feet dragging from a section of the public.

Enthusiasm for the exercise has slowed compared to previous events.

Whilst some health facilities have been forced to reduce the size of their vaccination teams, some facilities say there is little work for the team.

In some of the facilities, vaccinators had to close before 2 p.m when the news team visited.

The Kumasi South Hospital is one of the three vaccination centers in the Asokwa Municipality.

As of Wednesday, the center had administered 620 doses of its assigned 1,008 doses.

At least, 20 people refused to be vaccinated because they didn’t get their choice of vaccine, the Johnson and Johnson.

The Disease Control Officer at Kumasi South Hospital, Victoria Panford tells Joynews many of the youth who visited the center to be vaccinated prefer Johnson and Johnson vaccine.

“The people has reduced in their numbers. The young, between the ages of 20 and 28 they will come and they say no, we don’t want the double shot we want the single shot.

They will come and even you start filling the form for them and they will say no, no if it is not Johnson and Johnson, they will not take. So up to 20 to 25 people have come here and they have left”.

Somebody told us that my dad says I should come for only one shot and some people are saying the two is painful,” she added.

But some needle-phobic patrons, including 90-year-old Akua Akyaa, overcame their fears to be vaccinated.

For them, the risk associated with the Covid-19 compelled them to overcome their fears.

They are promising to be Covid-19 vaccine ambassadors by asking others who haven’t vaccinated to do so.

“As old as I am at 90-years, I am not afraid to die of Covid-19. It is okay for me to die at this age.

But even then, I have to protect myself from Covid-19. Since I live with children who always go out, I have to protect myself. That explains my decision to get vaccinated,” says Madam Akua Akyaa.

A young lady, Esther Kwarteng is one of the residents afraid of the needle. She braced the storm, overcame the storm and got vaccinated at the Kumasi South Hospital center.

“Being a little scared of needles, I wanted to just take it once and for all but looking at the Covid situation and then the shortages in terms of the vaccines and all that, I decided to take the double one.”

Needle phobia people do not only exhibit extreme fear of the needle but also have a strong dislike for blood. According to the Havard Medical School, the condition which is known medically as trypanophobia, it is estimated that the fear of the needle is likely to affect 25 per cent of adults in the United States, with 16 per cent of the people likely to skip vaccination.