*Adhere to COVID-19 protocols GHS cautions ahead of yuletide* 

The Ghana Health Service (GHS) has cautioned the general public to strictly adhere to the COVID-19 protocols during the festive season to prevent the exponential increase in our active cases.

According to the GHS, available data shows that people who usually visit Ghana during the festive season are from countries that are currently experiencing surges in their case count hence, people should make it a point to observe the preventive etiquettes of the virus during the period.

The Director General of the GHS, Dr. Patrick Kuma-Aboagye gave the warning during his update on Ghana’s COVID-19 fight on Sunday, December 18, 2022, in Accra.

“We are here to explain to you the risk we face with Christmas, our own gatherings, our practices, and the fact that we are going to have a lot of people coming into the country opens us up to contracting the virus. And that’s why we are cautioning the entirety of the population to be on the guard against it,” he said.

He said currently, Ghana has only 4 active cases cautioning that we shouldn’t be complacent with the 4 active cases as back in 2020, it took only 2 cases to spread the virus.

He said there is a potential for a new variant as it was experienced towards Christmas in 2021 when the Omicron variant was detected in Ghana.

On the number of doses administered, Dr. kuma-Aboagye said 21 million doses of vaccines have so far been administered. He said though the number of people vaccinated against the virus is remarkable and exceeds government’s target the country does not have the herd immunity yet and as a result, we shouldn’t engage in activities that has the likelihood of increasing our case count.

He encouraged people to continue to take the jab as it is the surest way of preventing the contraction of the virus.