President Nana Akufo-Addo has assured Ghanaians that the COVID-19 vaccine is safe today, Monday, 1st March, ahead of the commencement of the vaccination program on Tuesday, 2nd March, himself and his wife, the First Lady, the Vice President, his wife the Second Lady, and will take the vaccine publicly at two (2) health facilities in Accra.
He said the AstraZeneca vaccine is one of two (2) vaccines that have, so far, been approved and declared as safe-for-use by the Food and Drugs Authority (FDA). With the process of certification currently ongoing for the other vaccines, the range of vaccines available to us will increase. This will facilitate our ability to reach our target of vaccinating twenty million Ghanaians by the end of this year.
Through the National Vaccine Deployment Plan, our population has been segmented into four groups, and this will determine which section of the population gets vaccinated at a particular time.
Group 1 is categorized as “persons most at risk and frontline State officials”. It includes healthcare workers, frontline security personnel, persons with underlying medical conditions, persons sixty (60) years and above, and frontline members of the Executive, Legislature, and Judiciary.
Group 2 is made up of other essential service providers and the rest of the security agencies. It includes water and electricity supply services, teachers and students, supply and distribution of fuels, farmers and food value chain, telecommunications services, air traffic, and civil aviation control services, meteorological services, air transport services, waste management services, media, public and private commercial transport services, the Police Service, Armed Forces, Prisons Service, Immigration Service, National Fire Service, CEPS Division of the Ghana Revenue Authority, and other members of the Executive, Judiciary, and Legislature.
Group 3 consists of the rest of the general public, that is all persons over eighteen (18) years, except for pregnant women. The final group, that is Group 4, will include pregnant mothers and persons under the age of eighteen (18), and they will be vaccinated when an appropriate vaccine, hopefully, is found, or when enough safety data on the present vaccines are available. Special arrangements will be made for persons with disabilities who fall within these groups.
From Tuesday, 2nd March, to Monday, 15th March 2021, the Ghana Health Service will begin deployment of the six hundred thousand (600,000) AstraZeneca vaccines, with persons in Groups 1and 2 being the target of this first vaccination campaign. It will be conducted in forty-three (43) districts, which are the epicenters of the pandemic in the country. They are twenty-five (25) in Greater Accra, sixteen (16) in Ashanti, and two (2) in the Central Region. The Ghana Health Service, as from tomorrow, will give precise details.
The President said “Whilst we are, initially, concentrating on the forty-three (43) epicenter-districts, preparations are being made for the vaccination of twenty million Ghanaians through the deployment of some twelve thousand and seventy-one (12,471) vaccinators, thirty-seven thousand, four hundred and thirteen (37,413) volunteers, and two thousand, and seventy-nine (2,079) supervisors for the entire vaccination campaign.”
“Fellow Ghanaians, I know there are still some who continue to express doubts about the vaccine, others have expressed reservations about its efficacy, with some taking sides with conspiracy theorists who believe the vaccine has been created to wipe out the African race. This is far from the truth. Our domestic regulatory agency, the FDA, one of the most reputable in Africa and the world, has certified the safe use of the vaccine. It will not do so if it had any reservations about the safety of the vaccine, and I have gone on record as saying that no vaccine will be deployed in the country for use without the express certification of the FDA. ”
Taking the vaccine will not alter your DNA, it will not embed a tracking device in your body, neither will it cause infertility in women or in men.
Key public officials such as the Speaker and Members of Parliament, the Chief Justice and Justices of the Superior Court of Judicature, Chairperson and Members of the Council of State, the Chief of Staff and senior officials at the Office of the President, and prominent personalities like some Eminent Clergy, the National Chief Imam, the Asantehene, the Ga Mantse, and some media practitioners will also, on Tuesday, take the jab publicly. This is being done because the vaccine will help protect us against the impact of COVID-19 on our health. It is also a major catalyst to restoring livelihoods and the national economy to the robust level it belongs.
“I encourage faith-based groups, civil society, media, and all Ghanaians to support the public education campaign associated with the exercise. We need all hands on deck to make this a success.”
Source: Mybrytfmonline.com
