A total of 8.8 million COVID-19 vaccine doses have been administered across the country as at last Tuesday, the Ghana Health Service (GHS) has said.
The service said 2.8 persons have so far been fully vaccinated whiles 6.5 million have received at least one dose.
As a result, government rolled out the mandatory vaccination exercise yesterday as part of measures to control the spread of the disease in the country.
The exercise comes off the back of the “NO VACCINATION, NO ENTRY” policy announced by the Ghana Health Service (GHS) in December last year to ensure mandatory vaccination in January 2022.
When the Ghanaian Times visited some public offices including the Ministry of Health (MoH) in Accra yesterday, persons including health workers, security officers, and government workers who had not been vaccinated were denied entry for their lack or proof taking the jab.
While some of the affected expressed dissatisfaction about the directive, others said that the action took most of them by surprise.
Others claimed they had taken the vaccine but did not have their cards on them to serve as proof and so were not allowed in, describing the action as “unfair”.
However, others commended the initiative, accepted the blame and left for their various homes.
A nurse at the MoH who gave her name as Anne, told the Ghanaian Times that she was unaware of the directive, so did not have her vaccination cards.
She said they could not be blamed neither the officers at the entrance enforcing the directives.
On whether she was displeased or not, she said the action was a good one as indeed cases were rising in the country, adding that she only had to come with her card the next day.
A guest at the facility who had also been denied entry and gave his name Kwasi Osei said he least expected something like that to happen.
He said he travelled from far only to be denied entry as all his efforts in explaining his circumstance had been futile.
Mr Osei said he had been vaccinated twice but had misplaced his vaccination card. He, therefore, pleaded with government to institute measures to help people like him get new cards if not retrieve the old ones.
Another visitor at the facility who gave his name as Augustus Kyere similarly said he heard of the policy but had forgotten the date.
He said the policy was a good one due to the immense disregard to protocols and low patronage of the vaccination by Ghanaians.
Mr Kyere stressed that others should however not be favoured but given the same treatment in order to curb the spread of the disease in the country.
Meanwhile, the country has recorded 1,084 more cases of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID -19), shooting up the country’s case count to 147,203 as at last Friday.
According to the Ghana Health Service (GHS) website monitored by the Ghanaian Times yesterday, 132,869 people have recovered from the disease.
Unfortunately, 1,309people have died from the disease with 22 people in severe conditions and four people in critical state.
The GHS has indicated on its website that the country currently has 13,025 active cases.
BY ABIGAIL ARTHUR
