The government does not view the strict enforcement of certain COVID-19 vaccine mandates as a priority because of the increasing rate of vaccinations.

The Director-General of the Ghana Health Service, Dr. Patrick Kuma-Aboagye, said a possible “announcement and its implementation will be based mainly on how people take the vaccine.”

Among the vaccine mandates are the no-vaccination-no-entry rule in public places.

He noted that the month of vaccination, in December 2021, saw the rates of vaccination double.

“In December, we recorded about three million doses. We normally do about 1.5 to two million a month,” Dr. Kuma-Aboagye noted.

He said the government will continue to monitor vaccination rates to inform decision-making.

“Based on all that, the [health] minister will decide whether it is time to come out with a mandate to ensure that more people get vaccinated. But as more people are vaccinating voluntary, I don’t think there is any rush to do that.”

In December 2021, Ghana had about 1.7 million persons fully vaccinated against COVID-19.

This has risen to 4.5 people as of February 7, 2022.

Ghana has also started giving out booster jabs, with 67,104 people receiving one.

Ghana currently has 1,010 active cases of the virus after a surge in cases towards the end of 2021.

There have been 157,751 cases recorded in total with 1,419 deaths.