Park your car if you don't want to be vaccinated — Dr John Nsia Asare to drivers

Presidential Advisor on Health, Dr Anthony Nsia Asare, has justified the mandatory vaccination exercise introduced by the Ministry of Health.

He said government is determined to the lives of Ghanaian against the dreaded coronavirus hence the scaling up of the vaccination exercise.

Healthcare workers, security personnel, staffs of schools and all staffs of government institutions, commercial drivers, Okada riders, Uber drivers among others have been mentioned as persons required to undertake the compulsory vaccination.

Addressing a press conference Wednesday, December 1, the Minister of Health, Kwaku Agyemang-Manu said it has become necessary for the country to take stricter measures.

Explaining the declaration of December as the vaccination month, while speaking on the Key Points on TV3/3FM on Saturday December 4, he said “During times of pandemics like this, especially when the scare is like this and then we are losing a lot of social economic lives, we have to save our livelihoods and also our lives.

“The Public Health Act which the Minister stood on had come out with sanctions. For example, washing our hands and wearing masks were all from the Executive Instrument we made standing on the Public Health Act.

“So, if you think that you are a teacher or you are Uber driver or you are a driver and you don’t want to be vaccinated, you either park your car because we don’t want you to be a threat or a risk to somebody who join your vehicle,” he said.

He also allayed fears of persons who are worried about the potential reaction from taking the covid vaccine.

He stated that it is normal to experience headache, body pains and other reactions. These are indications that the vaccine is functioning properly in the body, he said.

“If you are vaccinated and you feel slight headache it means the vaccine is working very well,” Dr Nsia Asare said.

He further urged all persons who are yet to receive their vaccines to do so in order to save their lives and the lives of others.

In his view, Ghana cannot afford to go through fourth wave of the coronavirus pandemic hence the government, through the Ghana Health Service (GHS), has taken the vaccination exercise a step higher in order to get as many as possible inoculated.

Vaccination centres, he stated, are being created closed to the people in the communities including market areas to make it easier for them to go through the exercise.

“We cannot afford a fourth wave,” he said, adding that “we can all do this together if you are vaccinated,” he said.

The month of December has been declared by the GHS had as the vaccination month.

Addressing a press conference in Accra on Sunday November 28, the Director-General of the GHS, Dr Patrick Kumah-Aboagye said vaccination was the surest way to deal with the virus.

He further assured that the authorities are going to scale up surveillance measures at the Kotoka International Airport during the Christmas season to ensure that Covid infections do not increase.

He further said that the mistakes that were made in December last year which occasioned the escalation of infections in January this year, will not be repeated.

There is going to be a “strict enforcement of the protocols at the KIA. We are going to increase surveillance. We are expecting increased number of people to arrive in the country.

“we are going to ensure that our logistics are prepared, we will continue our surveillance to be able to look at that, we are going to look at isolation centres,” he said.

He added “Our contact tracing will be strengthened.

“We are going to engage with religious organizations to ensure that activities in done in Christmas are in accordance with Covid protocols.”

—3news.com