Coronavirus: Ghana unlikely to hit 60-70% of herd immunity – Ofori-Atta

• Ghana is unlikely to attain a 60-70% target of herd immunity in the fight against COVID-19

•Ken Ofori-Atta believes Ghana will not be able to vaccinate a large portion of its population by the end of 2021

•Ghana's vaccination programme has stalled for a while due to global vaccine shortages

Ghana is unlikely to reach an intended 60 or 70 percent of herd immunity in its fight against the coronavirus pandemic, by the end of this year, Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta has said.

Herd immunity occurs when a large portion of a community becomes immune to a certain disease. This often reduces the spread of the disease from person to person which in turn, protects the entire community even with persons who are immune to that disease.

Ghana had initially planned to vaccinate some 20 million citizens by the end of October 2021 but the finance minister says government is unlikely to inoculate the entire population within the period.

In an interaction with Accra-based, Asaase Radio, Ken Ofori-Atta outlined a number of factors as to why Ghana will be not able to achieve a certain percentage of herd immunity.

“I get confused with questions like this when you know that the supply element now has changed considerably and it is evident that the way in which the world dealt with this ensured that Africa was not going to get the supply. It is only now that we seem to have resolved it.”

“…It is unlikely that we will get to head immunity of 60% or 70% by December but we certainly will have a road map which ensures that doses would be coming in regularly so that our people are protected.”

Though Ghana has commenced a vaccination programme, the country has been lagging with the availability of enough vaccines to inoculate citizens. This is a result of global shortages and the availability of enough vaccines on the market.

According to the Ghana Health Service, only a little over a million citizens out of over a 30 million population have been vaccinated.