Public divided over compulsory vaccination
Akufo-Addo to give 27th Covid-19 update tonight
The Deputy Volta regional Ghana Health Service (GHS) Director, Dr. Senanu Dzokoto, has disclosed that one of the reasons fueling the vaccine hesitancy in the region is public fear that the vaccine will deplete their population.
Speaking at a leadership dialogue series organized by the Centre for Social Justice, manager of the Expanded Programme of Immunisation at the GHS, Dr. Kwame Amponsah Achiano revealed that some large quantity vaccines expired in Volta region due to hesitancy.
“We had a lot of vaccines in the Volta region. Unfortunately, because of hesitancy, we had a lot of them expiring and so we would be happy if senior people like you will support the Volta region in overcoming this
“We made a lot of vaccines available and I believe that when you do the background checks, you’d realise that quite a number of our vaccines expired in the Volta region of Ghana,” he said.
But commenting on what may be contributing to the development, Dr. Senanu Dzokoto, stated that the fear of extinction is a possible major causative factor.
“What is most shocking, several of them but let me just mention 3. Some will tell you actually that Covid-19 does not exist, it is just a machination by certain groups of people to make money and in order to make more money, they have added the vaccination intervention to it…so they are not going to even take it. Some also think if they take it, it is going to make them infertile so there’s no way the youthful population or women in their fertility age …they are not ready to take the vaccination. There was an occasion where one of such women went to take the vaccination [she consented], she was spoken to by the health workers and after that her husband was soo furious and almost came to assault the health workers for vaccinating the wife. And then for some of them they actually believe that it is a scheme to deplete the population of the Volta region for some parochial interest” Dr. Djokoto told sit-in host of "The Pulse", Emefa Ampawu.
Meanwhile, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, will this evening address the country on measures taken by government to combat the Covid-19 pandemic.
This will be the president’s 27th update since his last public engagement in July this year.
Nana Akufo-Addo is expected to amongst many things touch on the community spread of the new Omicron variant of Covid-19 ahead of the Christmas festivities.
He will additionally speak on the vaccination drive of the country as it ramps up efforts to vaccinate 15 million citizens by close of year.
The president is also expected to wade into the debate on whether or not it is compulsory to vaccinate persons arriving in the country at the Kotoka International Airport (KIA)
