Coronavirus vaccination cannot be mandatory - Prof Dodoo

Prof Alex Dodoo, director general of the Ghana Standards Authority, GSA, has said government will expect questions and challenges during vaccine roll out.

According to him, the scepticism associated with vaccination was to be expected but also that community trust remained a critical factor in curtailing the doubts.

“We do expect that when we roll out there will be questions, there will be challenges and a population has the right to challenge. Vaccination cannot be mandatory,” he said on Joy FM’s morning show, which was monitored by Ghanaweb.

In his 23rd coronavirus address which was delivered on Sunday, January 31, 2021; President Akufo-Addo said that the government’s initial target is to vaccinate 20 million citizens.

“Our aim is to vaccinate the entire population with an initial target of 20 million people. Through bilateral and multilateral means, we are hopeful of by the end of June, a total of 17,600,000 vaccine doses will have been procured for the Ghanaian people,” he said.

Dr Nsiah-Asare, the Presidential Advisor on Health recently disclosed how the government intended to roll out the vaccination plan. Speaking on Citi TV, Dr Nsiah-Asare said that government has divided the populace into four categories, based on which the exercise will be carried out.

The categories include frontline workers, people with some form of health risk and co-morbidities, workers who offer essential services and the arms of government and the remaining population.

He stated that the first batch of the vaccine will be the COVAX vaccine. Dr Nsiah-Asare noted that the government will also get assistance from some international organizations.

“We are supposed to get about 20 percent of those vaccines which are about six million. We are also getting vaccines from bilateral organisations. We are also getting vaccines from the private sector which have agreed to give vaccines from the companies, but they will also give the government the same amount of vaccines,” he added.