December 2021 has been declared by government as month of vaccination with the aim of getting more citizens vaccinated.
This was announced by the Ghana Health Service (GHS) at a press conference in Accra on November 28, 2021.
According to the Director General of GHS Dr. Patrick Kumah-Aboagye, preparations to roll out the initiative are underway, adding that GHS will officially rolled out on Tuesday November 30, 2021.
“With the increasing availability of vaccines in reasonable quantity in the pipeline we are declaring December as the month for vaccinations. So December is going to be declared as the month of vaccination and it will be launched by the honourable Minister of Health on Tuesday”.
“We are looking at all the three arms of government, all health workers have been given opportunity to vaccinate, and they stay in a very strategic location, and remember these are the people who have been prioritised at the beginning even when we had very few vaccines.”
“All security personnel will be covered, they should be vaccinated, all staff and students in Secondary and tertiary institutions should be vaccinated…all workers in government institutions, and parastatals, all drivers and their mates … are expected to be vaccinated,” he told the media.
The Ghana Health Service (GHS) has said it will not hesitate to make vaccination for COVID-19 mandatory in the country in a bid to achieve herd immunity.
The government had earlier projected to vaccinate about 20 million Ghanaians by December in a bid to achieve herd immunity, however, as at 18 November, only 3, 493,688 people have so far been vaccinated across the country.
Some experts have expressed worry that the hesitation on the part of most Ghanaians to take the jab could derail the government’s effort to contain the virus.
South Africa has been identified to have recorded high number of the new variant called Omicron in Africa.
Early evidence suggests Omicron has a higher re-infection risk.
The country now believed it is being targeted and victimized following restriction being imposed on travelers from the country.
The World Health Organization (WHO) said on Friday November 26, 2021 that the new variant was “of concern”.
Several cases have now been identified in Europe – two in the UK, two in Germany, one in Belgium and another one in Italy, while a suspected case was found in the Czech Republic.
Israel, where the new variant has been confirmed, has decided to ban all foreigners from entering the country from midnight Sunday.
The measure will last for 14 days, according to the Times of Israel.
Omicron cases have also been detected in Botswana, Hong Kong and Israel.
Hundreds of passengers arriving in the Netherlands from South Africa are being tested for the new variant.
