The Committee of Health in Parliament is set to embark on a regional campaign to whip up patronage for the COVID-19 vaccination exercise.
The exercise has become important with recent data showing the majority of those not vaccinated live in rural districts who incidentally are the most vulnerable people in society.
The leadership of the Health Committee disclosed this during an engagement with the media in Parliament on Wednesday, July 20, 2022.
Approximately 18 million Ghanaians have reportedly been vaccinated but the country has the capacity to vaccinate about 22 million people. This has, however, been hampered by superstitious beliefs in these rural areas, especially.
Chairperson of the Health Committee, Dr. Nana Ayew Afriyie who disclosed this indicated starting Thursday 21st July, 2022 the Committee will begin a campaign to get Ghanaians to go for the COVID jab.
Ranking Member of the Committee, Kwabena Mintah Akandoh argued that COVID has invariably come to stay and for the health of the country all must play a role to ensure the infection is managed effectively.
According to him, data available to the Committee show the vaccination rate in some of the regions is very low, especially in the rural districts where health infrastructure and system are very weak.
“If we are not careful as a country and these places are hit by another wave of COVID, it will be a disaster and therefore we have to encourage everyone who has not been vaccinated to do so immediately.”
“Whether we like it or not we will witness another wave of COVID as it has been happening in other countries. According to the data, in the Oti Region, Volta Region, Eastern Region, Western Region and the Ashanti Region we have very low vaccination rates.”
Mr. Akandoh parried away conspiracy theories making the rounds about the side effects of the vaccines and argued most of these claims are untrue.
He appealed to the media to join this new campaign to get Ghanaians to take the jab and stressed the country must not wait for another emergency before talking about vaccination.
He urged the Ministry of Health and the Ghana Health Service to make enough vaccines available to the districts so people could have access to them and also ensure there is no gap in the vaccination hype that could make people disinterested.
He also encouraged, especially those yet to be vaccinated to do well and go for the jab.