Study: Impact of COVID-19 on child immunization in Ghana

Kathrin Durizzo, Kenneth Harttgen and Isabel Günther (ETH DEC) and Koku Awoonor-Williams (University of Ghana) investigated whether the public lockdown in Ghana harmed routine childhood immunisation rates. The authors find that the negative impact on child immunisation in Ghana due to COVID-19 was less severe and shorter in duration than experts had predicted. Child immunisations in Ghana declined by 6% during the public lockdown in April 2020, but the country compensated with higher vaccination rates starting in June, and immunisation services recovered to pre-pandemic growth levels by 2021.

The results showed that the negative effect on child immunization was less severe and shorter than experts had predicted. These findings highlight quick adaptation in Ghana's public health response, which ensured that the disruption to child immunisation was minimal and brief.