The Municipal Health Director in the Bolgatanga Municipality, Edmund Nyanwura, has commended the medical waste team from Zoomlion for their professionalism shown in the ongoing nationwide vaccination exercise.
Mr. Nyanwura made this commendation during an interaction with journalists at the Bolgatanga Municipal Health Directorate.
“It is a good exercise and I wish this exercise would be a continual activity for us because not long ago we vaccinated people for yellow fever and we generated a lot of medical waste and we have to collect it ourselves. So if this could continue it will serve as a great relief because we vaccinate people and children more often”.
The vaccination of Johnson & Johnson which started three days ago at the Municipal health directorate office in the upper east region capital saw one hundred and fifty participants hence the second jabs of Astrazeneca commence on Monday 6th September 2021.
He noted that his outfit has enlightened the residents to partake in the vaccination exercise to protect themselves and their loved ones.
“We actually encouraged people to avail themselves when we receive more vaccine in the region to take their jabs and be protected”.
Adding that; protecting yourself with the vaccine does not mean you should stop wearing the nose masks. They are very important because it takes some time for immunity to develop and does not also mean that when you take the vaccine you may not get covid, you could get covid but it reduces the risk of admission and the effectiveness of the virus and also morality rate is highly reduced when vaccinated.
Touching on challenges, he said the health directorate has so far not recorded any challenges.
“The FDA is part of the stakeholders monitoring all the events that are taking place so far so good”.
The deputy Manager for Zoomlion in the Upper East region, Mr. Issaka Abdallah, said managing this infectious waste will go a long way to arrest the health risk that is associated with it.
“Once it is a vaccination exercise, there is a possibility of a health risk that will be posted to the public. For instance, people could contract diseases such as HIV, Hypertension among others”, he said.
According to him, Zoomlion collaborated with the Public Health Department of the Ministry of Health, School of Hygiene, and School of Public Health-Korle Bu, to ensure the safety of Ghanaians during and after the vaccination exercise.
The exercise also aimed at reducing the potential spread of infections from used syringes and other infectious waste and Promote environmental health and safety of humans.
He disclosed that his outfit was expected to collect all medical waste that will be generated in all the centres within the region.
On Tuesday, August 31, 2021, the nationwide exercise commenced in Ashanti and Upper West Region and it was expected to last for 7 days.
