COVID-19 compulsory vaccination to start in January - Aboagye Dacosta

COVID-19: 7.5 million vaccinated so far – GHS

GHS declares December as vaccination month

GHS to move from house to house to ensure Ghanaians are vaccinated

The Ghana Health Service (GHS) has announced that effective January 2022, the ministry will kick start COVID-19 compulsory vaccination for Ghanaians in the country.

According to the director of health promotion at the Ghana Health Service (GHS), Dr Aboagye Dacosta, this is necessary to ensure Ghana reaches herd immunity.

Speaking with Kwaku Nhyira-Addo on The Asaase Breakfast Show on Wednesday, December 15, 2021, Dr Dacosta said, “Currently we are not doing any mandatory vaccinations. We have declared the month of December as the month of vaccination and this month of December intends to give the population enough opportunity to get vaccinated … So, before we come to the compulsory vaccinations which will kick start in January which the minister will announce the date; all these modalities will be in place so that peoples right are respected…”

He adds that the ministry has started vaccination from hot spots across the country.

“… We were using the ‘above the line communication’; that was October-November and in that time there were also not many vaccines available. We started getting more vaccines just at the last quarter of this year. And what we decided to do was to use what we call the social mobilisation approach; we mobilise communities, we started from the hotspots then some prioritised groups as well and some key points,” asaaseradio.com quoted him.

Meanwhile, over 7.5 million Ghanaians have been vaccinated so far.

Dr Aboagye Dacosta added that more Ghanaians are expected to be vaccinated by the close of 2021 as December has been declared the month of vaccination.

To achieve this, the ministry will embark on a house to house vaccination, be present at church activities and other gatherings to ensure more Ghanaians are vaccinated by the end of the year.