GHANA COVID-19 Situation Report #19 – June 2021 1 June – 30 June 2021 Situation in Numbers (as of 30 June 2021) 95,914 confirmed cases 93,444 recoveries 796 deaths 1,674 active cases Over 9.2 million children benefitting from schools re- opening US$ 17.7 million funding gap Situation Overview and Humanitarian Needs Ghana’s COVID-19 cases rose by 1,903 bringing the total of confirmed cases to 95,914 with the total death toll at 796. The increase came during the month of June as Africa saw a fast-surging third wave, with cases projected to overtake the peak of the second wave that the continent witnessed at the start of 2021. The COVID-19 upsurge comes as the vaccine supply crunch persists. On 19 June, H.E. President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, in his capacity as Chairman of the Economic Community of West African States, urged West African countries to consider the local production of COVID-19 vaccines. Ghana has administered a total of 1,232,876 doses of AstraZeneca vaccines (852,047 for the first dose and 380,829 for the second dose). As of end June, only 4.8 per cent of the targeted population in the country had been Map of Ghana with the concentration of vaccinated, and 471,218 required a second dose. confirmed cases of COVID-19. The World Bank approved Ghana’s COVID-19 Emergency Preparedness and Response Project Second Additional Financing worth US$200 million, in collaboration with the COVAX Facility COVID-19 vaccine acquisition programme. This will strengthen the resilience of Ghana’s health systems to better prepare for future pandemics and to secure the continuation of essential health and nutrition services, including routine childhood immunization. 1 UNICEF's COVID-19 response in Ghana In close cooperation with the UN Country Team, UNICEF in Ghana continues to support the Government's overall response to the COVID-19 pandemic and other critical humanitarian risks across the sectors below. The priority is to support a cross-sectoral approach to mitigate COVID-19’s impact on Ghanaians' health, nutrition, development and protection of children, adolescents, and their families. Health Interventions are ongoing to improve lifesaving health, nutrition and sanitation services for children and women, especially among vulnerable groups. UNICEF is building the capacity of health care workers and supporting the provision of essential health and nutrition services. In June, the High Commission of Canada, UNICEF and the Government of Ghana visited the Ejisu Hospital in the Ashanti region to discuss progress and gaps in relation to health, nutrition, water and sanitation. As part of a COVID-19 Response Programme supported by the Government of Canada, four additional diagnostic labs will be set up in the Ashanti Region, and 15 health facilities will be equipped with oxygen therapy service. The programme will also train 2,000 community health nurses on an integrated E-tracker system, and 2,500 health care workers on maternal, neonatal and child health, infant and young child feeding and preventative care. Additionally, this support will enable the Ghana Health Service (GHS) to set up neonatal intensive care units to provide specialized care for newborns. Canadian High Commissioner to Ghana, H.E. A pregnant woman speaks to nurses on 17 A mother of a newborn baby on 17 Kati Csaba, Dr. Emmanuel Tinkorang, Ashanti June at Ejisu Hospital as part of her antenatal June in Ejisu Hospital practices Regional Director of Health and the UNICEF visit. ©UNICEF/UN320491/ACQUAH Team celebrate joint efforts at the Ejisu Hospital. kangaroo care, to improve bonding and healthy growth. ©UNICEF/UN732211/ACQUAH ©UNICEF/UN439921/ACQUAH Ghana is waiting for additional vaccines to roll out subsequent phases of the National Deployment and Vaccination Plan, including AstraZeneca doses. Other approved vaccines requiring ultra-cold chain storage, such as the Pfizer vaccine, will also be welcome to reach the targeted population. AstraZeneca vaccines will be deployed to 14 regions, while Sputnik V vaccines will be sent to Ashanti and Greater Accra Regions. As part of the COVAX facility (CEPI, GAVI, UNICEF, WHO), UNICEF will continue to provide support in relation to the procurement and shipment of the doses, as well as the vaccination campaign. UNICEF has engaged a consultant to support the installation of remote temperature monitoring devices in 17 walk-in cold rooms at national and regional levels and trained over 20 cold chain engineers and managers to troubleshoot, operate, and maintain the devices. UNICEF is also supporting the Ghana Health Service and Ministry of health to procure 30 ultra-cold chain equipment for the National Cold Room and selected Regional Health Directorates and Hospitals, with funding support from Japan. The team on the ground is closely following up Cold chain equipment being deployed in with UNICEF’s Supply Division on the procurement and shipment. Ghana ©UNICEF/UN216739/KOKOROKO 2 A training was conducted for 16 regional teams of the GHS on Sputnik V vaccine storage, handling, administration, and waste disposal to ensure effective vaccination of enumerators and census officers of the Ghana 2021 Population and Housing Census. The objective is to protect enumerators, census officers and the public from the COVID-19 virus. Nutrition UNICEF continued to provide financial and technical support to the Ghana Health Service (GHS) and the Ghana Education Service (GES) by consolidating all food, nutrition and health actions provided through schools in the context of COVID-19. June’s results include updated national guidelines to improve the nutrition of school-age children and adolescents. In addition, UNICEF supported the orientation of 130 staff from 16 regions on the revised school-age and adolescent Adolescent students answer a teacher’s nutrition guidelines, as well as the development of regional specific question in a classroom. Guidelines to improve their nutrition were released this workplans to scale up school-age and adolescent nutrition in 800 month. ©UNICEF/UN120377/BUTA schools across the country. As the lead for the Scaling-Up Nutrition Development Partners (SUN- DP), UNICEF continued to support the Government to strengthen nutrition coordination. Together with partners, UNICEF updated the inter-agency nutrition preparedness and response plan. Additionally, the National Development Commission, USAID, and UNICEF organized a learning event to improve multi-sectoral coordination in Ghana. The event brought over 100 participants from government ministries, departments, and agencies, development A mother practices good infant and young partners, academia, civil society organizations (CSOs), the private child feeding with age-appropriate nutritious sector, and the media. food. ©UNICEF/UN299112/ACQUAH Preliminary findings were extracted from UNICEF’s study Landscape Analysis of Nutrition Enabling Environment in Ghana and USAID’s Nutrition Mapping: Report on Multi-Sectoral Planning and Coordination for Nutrition in Ghana. The experiences of Japan also shaped the discussions in their efforts to strengthen multi-sectoral nutrition funding, coordination, leadership, and governance. The event’s outcomes will guide the Government and partners to increase direct government investments in nutrition funding and to strengthen multi-sectoral coordination in Ghana. Twenty Ghanaian children aged 10-19 years represented different parts of the country as part of a global initiative to ensure children and adolescents’ participation in improving food systems for them. A U-report poll generated 2,731 responses (girls: 834; boys: 1,010) with 44 percent confirming their desire to eat healthy food with 62 per cent saying, however, that it was unaffordable. Their views will be shared alongside those of children from 19 other countries across the world in the upcoming September UN Food Systems Summit in Rome. Over 2,700 girls and boys took part in a Ghana U-Report poll on what food means to them during a youth consultation in June. ©UNICEF/2021 3 Water Sanitation and Hygiene In the Northern Region of Ghana, UNICEF and the Community Water and Sanitation (WASH) Agency have completed the rehabilitation of a small-town water system in Kpatinga. This rehabilitation will serve an estimated 108 households and improve the water supply for 6,500 people. Infrastructure and access to clean water in ten schools and ten healthcare facilities in the Central, Northern and Volta Regions UNICEF WASH Officer Paa Kwesi Woode and a has also been improved. They are helping to reduce the risk of partner inspect a water container and hand washing station on 24 June 2021 in Nsawam, Eastern COVID-19 infection. An estimated 2,000 children and 1,000 Region. ©UNICEF/UN720019/ADATSI outpatients in the Northern Region have been reached per day thanks to these interventions. Handwashing stations have also been distributed to 38 schools, reaching an estimated 7,600 children. Twenty lorry stations and 27 markets will improve handwashing stations for the public’s use. Over the reporting period, the WASH team facilitated a meeting between six rural or community banks in Accra and Kumasi, and the Association of Rural Banks’ Apex Bank to discuss the Basic Sanitation Fund, supported by the Netherlands. This meeting was a step towards enrolling additional banks onto the scheme to extend sanitation credit facilities to communities benefitting from an ongoing Urban WASH Programme supported by the Government of Denmark. A COVID-19 capacity building Programme of 59 environmental health officers on risk communication, sanitary burials and enhanced inspections have yielded positive benefits in the Eastern Region over the first half of the year. Supported by the Government of Japan, over 24,476 people were reached with messages on COVID-19 preventative care in the New Juaben North, New Juaben South, Nsawam Adoagyiri, Kwahu West and Birim North districts. WASH infrastructure support in five Clean hands save lives. Children demonstrate how to properly wash their hands to prevent healthcare facilities within the Eastern Region also continues to COVID-19 spread.