Assembly Members in Upper Manya Krobo District in the Eastern region have appealed to residents to make themselves available to be vaccinated against Covid-19.
Speaking on behalf of the 33 assembly members, the Presiding member Eric Tettey said turnout for the inoculation has not been encouraging.
He assured residents that the vaccine is safe, and has the efficacy to protect them from the deadly Covid-19 virus.
The Presiding member said this during the farmers day celebration durbar at Asesewa.
He described it as a false impression that residents are hesitant due to eranouse political misconceptions about the vaccine.
“if you want to travel outside the country and you don’t have the full dosage you h are not inoculated you cannot go. As I stand here, I have been fully vaccinated nothing happened to me .so we members of the Upper Manya Krobo District Assembly, want to put it on record that the statement is false whoever reported about that is not doing us any good. We are not demonstrating against it, we want to do the needful, we are going to take our covid vaccination and then to ensure that we all take out jabs,” he said.
His comment comes after the Upper Manya Krobo District Health Directorate decried low turnout for the Covid-19 vaccination in the district due to some misconceptions festering among the people.
The Health directorate had estimated to vaccinate about fifty thousand, one hundred and four (50,104) people in the district by the end of this year, however, only 282 have fully been vaccinated since the inception of the vaccination exercise.
About 820 persons who took the first jab were reportedly hesitant for the second dose.
According to the District Health Director, Esther Dua Oyinka, some of the reasons for the high hesitancy in the district include the fact that there is misinformation that the ruling New Patriotic Party government wants to use the vaccine to change the minds of the electorate in the district to vote for the NPP in 2024 and subsequent elections.
“Some of the rumours are that if you are a man and you take the vaccine you will become impotent which is a falsehood. Others are saying if you are a lady, you will cease menstruation and you cannot give birth any longer, others say if you take it you are going to die that it will push you to your early grave because you will experience some funny signs and symptoms in your body. Even some are saying it is the government that has put in certain things to make up for the vaccine to vaccinate them so that it will change their minds from voting for any other party except the sitting party,” she lamented.
However, the District Health Director says sensitization and awareness creation has been intensified to dispel the growing misconceptions about the vaccine to encourage residents to be immunized.
However, this statement has been greeted with anger and unfortunately misinterpreted with the tribal sentiment.
Mybrytfmonline.com has gathered that a Krobo group known as Kloma Hengme is pestering the District Health Director to withdraw the statement and apologize to the people of Krobo or face their wrath.
Source: Mybrytfmonline.com/Obed Ansah
