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Government officials will take the Covid-19 vaccines publicly - Kojo Oppong Nkrumah

The Information Minister-designate has disclosed that government officials will publicly take doses of the Covid-19 vaccines before the mass vaccination exercise to disabuse the minds of those who have misgivings about their safety for use.

Kojo Oppong Nkrumah

Kojo Oppong Nkrumah's revelation follows the preparation by the Ghana Health Service (GHS) to begin a mass vaccination exercise with Covid-19 vaccines for selected segments of the population next month.

Health care workers, frontline security personnel, persons with known underlying medical conditions, 60 plus older persons and frontline members of the Executive, Legislature and Judiciary will be given the priority.

The Food and Drugs Authority (FDA) has, so far, approved AstraZeneca vaccines from India and Sputnik-V vaccines from Russia for mass immunisation in Ghana, starting from March to October.

Some unverifiable information circulating on social media platforms about the alleged harmful effects of the vaccines on people has created fear among a section of the Ghanaian populace.

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However, speaking at a public engagement on the Covid-19 vaccination roll-out plan in Accra on Friday, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah said some members of government, including himself, would volunteer to publicly take shots of the Covid-19 vaccines to demystify the negative perception.

He said there would be elaborate stakeholder engagements and sustained public sensitisation campaigns by the Ghana Local Service (GLS), Ministry of Health(MOH), Ghana Health Service(GHS) National Commission for Civic Education(NCCE) and Information Services Department (ISD), to educate the public on the upcoming immunisation exercise.

He added that health staff from the GHS, ISD and NCCE would visit markets, lorry parks, churches, mosques and other public places, with vans to sensitise the public, explain and answer questions regarding the vaccination exercise.

Meanwhile, Dr. Kwame Amponsa-Achiano, the Programme Manager, Expanded Programme on Immunisation, Ghana Health Service, assured that the Covid-19 vaccines to be administered to Ghanaians had gone through clinical trial and proven to be safe and efficacious, so Ghanaians should put their minds at ease.

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