House of Chiefs appeals to Ghanaians to avail themselves for COVID-19 vaccination

The National House of Chiefs has made a passionate plea to the citizenry to embrace the soon-to-be rolled out Coronavirus vaccination exercise.

The House’s appeal, which was contained in a statement, comes to boost the confidence of Ghanaians ahead of the nationwide vaccination plan.

“We strongly appeal to everybody to avail themselves for the upcoming immunization exercise”, the Chiefs urged.

The traditional rulers commended the government for the giant step taken and its rapid response to ensuring the availability of vaccines in the country.

Nananom said despite the planned vaccination programme, there is the need for the public to ensure continuous adherence to the COVID-19 guidelines to stem the spread of infections.

Ghana has taken delivery of  600,000 doses of AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine made by the Serum Institute of India via the COVAX facility.

Through the National Vaccine Deployment Plan, the population has been segmented into four to determine which section of Ghanaians get vaccinated at a particular time beginning Tuesday, March 2 to Monday, March 15, 2021.

The campaign is to be conducted in 43 districts, which are the epi-centres of the pandemic in the country.

They include 25 in Greater Accra, 16 in Ashanti, and two in the Central Region with health officials expected to give fuller details of the programme.

Already, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo and his Vice, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia have publicly received the first shots of the newly arrived COVID-19 vaccines in Ghana.

The two leaders took the jab together with their wives, Rebecca Akufo-Addo and Samira Bawumia.

Other key public officials and prominent persons have also been scheduled to be vaccinated in public.

Don’t fret, vaccines are safe – Nana Addo assures

President Nana Akufo-Addo has allayed the genuine fears of Ghanaians ahead of the national vaccination programme against Coronavirus.

He says conspiracy theories that have been propounded about the vaccines must be ignored assuring that the vaccines are safe and will not have any adverse effect on the health of recipients.

“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. As your President, I want to assure you that the vaccine is safe”, Akufo-Addo said on Sunday during his 24th COVID-19 update.

The President further discredited other viral false claims of post-vaccination saying, “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”.

He argued that Ghana’s regulatory agency, the Food and Drugs Authority (FDA), 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,” he added.