Government says there is no official mandatory COVID-19 vaccination policy in Ghana.
According to government, although its position with regards to COVID-19 vaccination is backed by data, “there is no current mandate requiring mandatory vaccine rollouts within the country.”
This was contained in a letter dated January 18, 2022, in response to a petition from a group of doctors opposed to government’s rollout of an extensive vaccination programme as one of the effective means of reducing the transmission of COVID-19.
The letter written by the Presidential Advisor on Health, Dr Anthony Nsiah-Asare noted that the vaccination exercise had become necessary because “there was a clear evidence of the public health impact of vaccination in terms of infections, hospitalisations, deaths prevented and improved health outcomes that cannot simply be brushed aside.”
Meanwhile, in another letter to the Presidency, the doctors raised further concerns about the vaccination programme, noting that government’s response that the vaccination rollout was not mandatory, was in contradiction to directives by the Ghana Health Service.
“It is stated in your response that “there is no current official mandate requiring mandatory vaccine rollouts within the country.” However, this seems to be in contradiction to statements made by the Director-General of the Ghana Health. He stated in a news conference in November 2021 that the government will hold a vaccination drive in December after which the vaccine will be mandatory for employees in all arms of government, health workers, security personnel, staff and students of secondary and tertiary education, and commercial drivers.
“This sentiment was captured in the Daily Graphic in a news article titled, “December declared COVID-19 vaccination month.” This was further buttressed at the Ministry of Information press briefing which was held on 19th January, 2022, where representatives of the Ghana Health Service, including the Director-General himself, provided policy updates on vaccine strategies, repeating government’s commitment to make the COVID-19 vaccines mandatory for certain particular groups of people, and extending the COVID-19 vaccination programme to include pregnant women,” the letter said.
Data from the Ministry of Health show that as of January 27, 2022, 3, 543,312, representing 17.7 per cent of the population had been fully vaccinated, while 7,221,427, representing 36.1 per cent of the population had received the first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine.
The data also shows that 1,161 persons had received first booster dose.
Meanwhile, the Ghana Health Service on Monday, January 31, rolled out a a five-day national vaccination campaign as part of efforts to increase the uptake of the COVID-19 vaccine.
The National Vaccination Days campaign will run from Wednesday, February 2 to Sunday, February 6, 2022.
Codenamed: ‘Operation 2.5 million doses in five days’, the campaign intends to target at least 20 per cent of the 13.2 million population who remain unvaccinated.
All people 15 years and above, including pregnant women, are eligible to receive the vaccine.
