COVID-19 vaccination: Parliament select Committee on Health embarks on nationwide campaign to get all Ghanaians vaccinated

The Parliamentary Select Committee on Health is to embark on a nationwide campaign to sensitise the citizenry about COVID-19 vaccination.

The sensitisation exercise scheduled to kick start next week is aimed at whipping up the interest of the people, especially in the rural communities to go for the vaccines and also to clear misconceptions and myths associated with COVID-19 vaccines.

The campaign by the Health Committee of Parliament has also become necessary following the low patronage of the COVID-19 vaccination across the country.

Rationale

Addressing journalists at the Parliament House today, Wednesday, July 20, 2022, the chair of the Health Committee of Parliament, Dr Nana Ayew Afriyie said the committee decided to embark on the nationwide campaign following misconceptions and conspiracy theories surrounding the COVID-19 vaccination.

"As representatives of the people there was the need to partner with the Ghana Health Service to get our people to vaccinate to protect themselves against the virus", he said.

Dr Afriyie, who is also the Member of Parliament (MP) for Effiduase-Asokore said Ghana has the capacity to vaccinate about 22 million of its citizens but as of now, about 18 million people have gone for the COVID-19 vaccines.

He said it was based on these available statistics, coupled with the lack of seriousness and the importance attached to the vaccination exercise that the committee has decided to move from region to region to educate the citizenry about the need to get vaccinated.

He further appealed to the media to support the campaign by using their platforms to educate the citizenry on the need to go for the vaccines and also help clear the misconceptions surrounding the vaccines.

Low patronage

The Ranking Member on the Committee and MP for Juaboso, Kwabena Mintah Akandoh said the joint efforts by the Majority and Minority members on the committee is to ensure that the country attained herd immunity.

He added that many people living in the small towns and rural areas are the majority who have not taken the vaccines, especially in the Oti, Volta, Eastern, Western North and Ashanti Regions, hence the need to embark on the campaign to get everyone vaccinated.

He said this based on the data available to the committee on the vaccination exercise, if there was another wave of the disease it would be a disaster for the country, there was therefore the need for the committee to go to each region to encourage the people to go for the vaccines.

"We are therefore here today to encourage all and sundry to go for the vaccines to protect themselves and save lives", he stated.