‘Volta Region should not be blamed for not attaining herd immunity’ - Dzokoto

Dr. Senanu Kwesi Dzokoto, Deputy Director of Health Services in the Volta Region, has said the Region risked getting the blame for the nation’s inability to attain herd immunity against the coronavirus disease.

He said vaccine hesitancy stemming from whirling conspiracy theories and falsehoods, kept the Region far behind in a nationalistic race against time to inoculate 70 percent of the population.

Dr. Dzokoto, who was addressing the media launch of the national COVID-19 vaccination campaign in the region, said tens of thousands of vaccine doses assigned to the region died in storage as only nine percent of the population had taken the shots.

“Vaccine hesitancy is very profound in the Volta Region. We are the last in terms of vaccination. While other regions have 35 percent of their populations vaccinated, in Volta, only nine percent have been vaccinated.

“Clearly we are not doing well when it comes to vaccinations and this is because misinformation went ahead of us. And unfortunately, some people have been brainwashed by misinformation to kick against one of the most effective measures to fight this pandemic,” he said.

The Health Director blamed the poor reception of the vaccine intervention on “inadequate understanding of how vaccines work”, and called on the media to help fight against the “infodemic”.

He added that the Region had an enviable place in the world of vaccine development, having recently been praised for its contribution towards the development of the groundbreaking malaria vaccine, and therefore had a reputation to keep.

Mr. Dzokoto thus called on all to “reject non-entities that fight vaccination”, and to support the Ghana Health Service in carrying out the” moral obligation to get people vaccinated against COVID-19.

“Volta Region should not be blamed for not achieving herd immunity,” he added.

This year’s COVID-19 vaccination days programme targets 2.5 million inoculations in five days, and health authorities have resolved to grant the Volta Region an early start, and a quota of 20 percent of the national target.

The initiative would bring together all stakeholders and the communities towards attaining the vaccination goals and would feature extensive sensitization using various media.

Ghana has received some 25 million doses of vaccines and distributed over 15 million among the various regions.