A Deputy Minister of Health, Alhaji Mahama Asei Seini, has suggested that vaccination cards could become essential for travel and movement during the Christmas holidays.

When asked about the surge in cases outside Ghana, Mr. Seini referenced the importance of vaccination cards in travel outside Ghana.

For example, Slovakia has gone into a two-week lockdown, the Czech Republic has declared a 30-day state of emergency which involves early closure of bars and clubs and a ban on Christmas markets.

Germany has also crossed the threshold of 100,000 COVID-19-related deaths.

“If you don’t take time, this Christmas, if you don’t have the card, you can’t even go and mingle with your brother to celebrate the Christmas [in Ghana],” the deputy minister said.

“The restrictions will come. While you want to go to Europe, you will need to show it. And when you are coming to Ghana, you will also need to show it. That is why you are encouraged to go for the vaccination and get your card,” he added.

Despite concerns about the slow rate of vaccination, Mr. Seini remains optimistic about achieving the target set by the government to vaccinate 20 million Ghanaians by the end of 2020.

He noted that “what we are observing is people don’t even want to move for the vaccines.”

In response to this, he said, more education would be required to improve the rate of vaccination.

Mr. Seini, however, added that “coverage is very high, and I think when we put out the figures, I think we will be hitting almost 10 million [people vaccinated] and above.”

So far, only 3,493,688 Ghanaians have received at least a dose of a COVID-19 vaccine.