Ghana Health Service (GHS) on Tuesday said the government will issue enhanced COVID-19 vaccination cards to people who get their second shots in counterfeit cards crackdown, reported CGTN Africa.
During a press briefing, Patrick Kuma-Aboagye, director-general of the GHS, said the vaccination cards of those who get their second shots will have holograms imprinted on them for authentication.
“In some parts of the world, people show up with fraudulent vaccination cards claiming they have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19 when they are not,” said Kuma-Aboagye.
The GHS director-general said that once people show up at vaccination centers, their data would be pulled up to verify whether they had already taken the first dose to ensure the cards are issued based on authentic data.
Kuma-Aboagye said the system automatically prints out the enhanced COVID-19 vaccination cards after the second dose. He, however, cautioned that even those who get their second doses continue wearing face masks and observing safety protocols as the second vaccine dose will not protect them 100 percent.
Ghana will begin administering the second dose of the COVID-19 vaccine on Wednesday, May 19. The start of the second vaccine dose was made possible by the receipt of 350,000 additional doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine through the COVAX facility.
The Ghanian government is also expecting about 300,000 Sputnik V vaccines already approved by the Ghana Food and Drugs Authority to boost the country’s preventive efforts.
On Sunday, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo said the health authorities are making efforts to ensure that those who received their first vaccine dose after March 9 will receive their second dose in due course of time.
He said that the government would continue to impose restrictions until Ghana achieves herd immunity to get back life on the normal track.
Ghana has registered 93,390 coronavirus cases including 783 deaths so far.
