Akufo-Addo revises Ghana’s vaccination target deadline after failing to meet the previous one
As we gravitate towards the end of the year, President Akufo-Addo has set a new target apart from the first one to inoculate the targeted 20 million Ghanaians.
For him, by end of the first quarter of 2022 Ghana will stand a chance of being able to achieve the inoculation of 20 million Ghanaians.
“That 20 million target, we may not (be able to) reach (it) this year. But we believe by the end of the first quarter next year, we would have attained (it),” he said in a Q&A with Forbes Africa on December 23.
The target of 20 million is expected to cover Ghana’s adult population and the President feels “that in itself gives us all the immunity we need. So… it is a really important target.”
Government has not also forgotten its plan to produce its own vaccines to combat the virus in the future President Akufo-Addo assured.
“We are in the process of creating a national vaccine institute led by very capable and world-class Ghanaian scientists, and we are hoping that by next year, it will be up and running, so we can find strong capabilities to find vaccines for our people.”
Currently, about 2.6 million Ghanaians are fully vaccinated out of the over 30 million population despite the concerns that Ghana has a growing problem of vaccine hesitancy.
Ghana is in its month of vaccination as December 2021 has been declared the month of vaccinations by the government to counter these concerns.
This was backed by strict directives to make vaccination mandatory like the directive to all persons to be vaccinated on arrival at the Kotoka International Airport before they can be permitted to enter the country.
The vaccine hesitancy concerns come also come into play as Ghana is contending with a fourth wave of Covid-19 following the emergence of the Omicron variant of the virus.
On December 19, Ghana had 3,165 active cases of the virus. This figure stands at 9,534 cases as of December 25. And in all, Ghana has had 141,295 confirmed cases of the virus with 1,287 deaths.
By: Stella Annan | myactiveonline.com Twitter @activetvgh
