The Ghana Health Service (GHS) will begin the administration of the second dose of the AstraZeneca vaccines in the ongoing vaccination exercise today, Tuesday, August 31.

This is after the country took delivery of additional 249,600 doses of AstraZeneca vaccine.

According to the GHS in its press statement signed by its Director-General, Dr Patrick Kuma-Aboagye, only persons above the age of 17 years who received the first dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine between March 10-29, 2021 are eligible to participate.

However, before such persons can be attended to, they would have to show a valid national ID card (preferably the one presented for the 1st dose) and the Covid-19 vaccination card.

The exercise, Dr Aboagye noted, is to come to an end on Saturday, September 4.

In March this year, government started the roll out of Covid-19 vaccines beginning with AstraZeneca.

To date, data from the GHS reveals that approximately 850,000 persons have received at least one dose of AstraZeneca vaccine of whom a little over half has received the second dose.

Meanwhile, government is working to procure additional 350,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccines. They are expected to arrive before mid-September.

"This will be administered to the rest of the population who are awaiting the second dose while efforts continue to be made to get more vaccines for the population," the press statement dated August 30 further added.

Again, the Ghana Health Service is urging the entire citizenry to continue to observe the safety Covid-19 protocols to mitigate the spread of the virus.

As of August 25, the Service recorded 7,024 active cases. The number of new cases recorded stood at 630. So far, a total of 1,017 persons have lost their lives to the virus.

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