Fighting COVID-19: Tullow donates 200 data collection devices

The COVID-19 pandemic caused by SARS-CoV-2 is an important subject for global health concerns.

Ghana experienced low moderate transmission of the disease when the first case was detected in March 12, 2020 and by the middle of that month, the government ordered the close down of all schools as a way of containing the spread of the virus.

As of January 28, 2022, Ghana’s COVID-19 confirmed cases stood at 156,242, from about 2,207,069 tests conducted, while 1,364 people had lost their lives to the disease, with active cases standing at 4,185.

Viral reports have it that due to database gaps, there were initial challenges with timely reporting and feedback to stakeholders during the peak surveillance period.

The gaps resulted from mismatches between samples and their accompanying case investigation forms, samples without case investigation forms and vice versa, huge data entry requirements, and delayed test results.

With that in mind, the Ghana Health Service (GHS) on Wednesday, February 2, started a five-day national vaccination campaign as part of efforts to increase the uptake of the COVID-19 vaccine, with a clear strategy to collect accurate data to help fight the virus head-on.

The campaign intends to target at least 20 per cent of the 13.2 million population who remain un-vaccinated to help achieve the herd immunity target of 20 million people.

To ensure that more than 64 per cent of the population have been vaccinated by the end of the campaign on Sunday, February 6, the GHS has deployed about 3,000 health staff across the country for the exercise in the next five days.

The health staff, as part of their mandate, need to provide real time information to the GHS database. It will not be appropriate to collect the data manually before transferring into the national database which may cause inconsistencies such as multiple entries and misinformation.