Three medical and research scientists have backed the government’s plan to enforce a vaccine mandate in the country to improve vaccination rate and break transmission of COVID-19.
The action, imposed in a number of countries to control the pandemic, is a way of compelling people to get vaccinated and could mean fining those who do not comply or excluding them from accessing certain services, activities and locations.
In separate interviews with the Ghanaian Times yesterday, the scientists alluded that the implementation of the law together with strict observance of the safety protocols was crucial to help achieve herd immunity and protect the citizenry against infection.
They are Dr Kwame Asiedu Sarpong, a Research Fellow at the Centre for Democratic Development, Dr Peter Quarshie, a virologist and Senior Research Fellow at the West African Centre for Cell Biology of Infectious Pathogens (WACCBIP) and Dr Emmanuel Addipa-Adapoe, a Medical Laboratory Scientist and member of the COVID-19 Management Team of the Greater Accra Regional Hospital (GARH).
, a Medical Laboratory Scientist and member of the COVID-19 Management Team of the Greater Accra Regional Hospital (GARH).
According to Dr Sarpong, government through the Public Health Act 2012 (Act 851) had the responsibility to ensure public safety in case of health emergencies and that was above parochial interests.
He explained that clauses 20 to 26 of the Act clearly outlined processes to enforce a vaccine mandate in Ghana to protect the public and government was in order in applying the law in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Dr Sarpong encouraged Ghanaians, especially the working class to take the responsibility of testing for COVID-19 and strictly observe the protocols with hindsight of the Christmas festivities in order to curb workplace infections.
To Dr Quarshie, the country’s vaccination rate was too low amidst uncontrolled spread of the virus and disregard of safety protocols and that, could spell doom if drastic measures were not taken to halt spread.
“Our vaccination rate so far isn’t good enough and government is right in enforcing the vaccine mandate and it probably should have been done earlier.
This isn’t a human right issue. People cannot continue to be a risk to others. The mandate is to protect the public not to target individuals and the only way to get the public vaccinated and achieve herd immunity,” he said.
Dr Quarshie encouraged the public to disregard myths and ill advice on the COVID-19 vaccines and avail themselves for their jabs to bring life back to normalcy.
For his part, Dr Addipa-Adapoe explained that the COVID-19 vaccines helped in producing needed antibodies in one’s body to limit the severity of illness from infection than being unvaccinated.
“The vaccine will give you lifelong protection,” he said and encouraged the public to go for their jabs.
The Ministry of Health (MoH) on January 4, 2022 begun enforcement of the “No Vaccination, No Entry” policy and that has since been replicated by some government agencies.
The directive which ensures that staff of public institutions as well as visitors show proof of vaccination before allowed access to the premises, forms part of measures to control spread of COVID-19.
This comes at a time where Ghana has about 8.9 million of its population receiving at least a jab of the COVID-19 vaccine.
So far, a little over 2.8 million people, representing 14.2 per cent, are fully vaccinated.
However, the country has an active COVID-19 case count of 13, 547 with a death toll of 1,322.
BY ABIGAIL ANNOR
