COVID-19 vaccines are safe! …GHS asks public to disregard misinformation

The Director General of the Ghana Health Service (GHS), Dr Patrick Kuma-Aboagye, has urged the public to disregard the misinformation being peddled about the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccine.

According to him, the vaccine was safe and had gone through strict international regulatory approval, hence every individual must take it.

Dr Aboagye stated these during a stakeholder’s engagement with traditional leaders to end the ‘Peer-To-Peer Enforcement Strategy programme in Accra on Tuesday.

The engagement which started last Friday aimed at strengthening the capacity of stakeholders in the various organisations to improve the public’s understanding of risks associated with COVID-19.

It was also to help in the mitigation measures for continued uptake of protective health behaviours, to prevent further spread of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Dr Kuma-Aboagye entreated the traditional leaders in the country to form groups which would lead the education and enforcement of the COVID-19 safety protocols.

“We urge you as traditional leaders to form a taskforce in your communities to educate and engage your people on the enforcement of COVID-19 safety protocols,” he added.

Dr Kuma-Aboagyesaid the programme was to help complement the efforts of the government and security agencies in ensuring that, the public adhered to the COVID-19 safety protocols.

He urged the traditional leaders to ensure that their subjects put on face masks and observed all the COVID-19 safetyprotocols.

Dr Kuma-Aboagye said GHS would monitor the exerciseto ensure there was compliance to the protocols to achieve the aim of the project.

He also stated that, GHS would continue to educate the public and engage stakeholders to ensure that there were zero cases of virus in the country.

Dr Kuma-Aboagye therefore charged the public to take advantage of the ongoing vaccination exercise to protect themselves against COVID-19.

A representative of Ga Traditional Council, Nii Quao Odonkor II, who is the Asere Tsoro Mantse commended the GHS for the engagement and promised to relay the information to their various communities.

“We have days we meet as chiefs and so we will meet with our community members and make them understand the dangers associated with the disease and encourage them to observe the protocols,” he added.

BY VIVIAN ARTHUR