The Director-General of the Ghana Health Service, (GHS) Dr. Patrick Kuma-Aboagye says the service will fashion out new strategies to engage Ghanaians in a bid to reduce the incidence of COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy.

Large quantities of vaccines deployed to parts of the country have expired due to the reluctance on the part of many to take the COVID-19 jab.

Speaking to Citi News, Dr. Kuma-Aboagye said the Ghana Health Service will ramp up efforts to get a greater number of residents vaccinated.

He added that the GHS will continue to engage Ghanaians more to ensure smooth administration of the vaccines.

“There is some form of reluctance in the taking of the vaccines, and I will say it is not only in the Volta Region, it’s also across the regions. So it is about the strategy and the engagement of the people because the more we continue to engage, the more the people take the vaccines.”

Vaccines expire in Volta Region
Large quantities of COVID-19 vaccines in the Volta Region have expired amid vaccine hesitancy in the region.

According to the Ghana Health Service in the region, vaccines that went to waste in the region during the last vaccination campaign were significantly above the national average.

“For the last campaign we had, the wastage we had was close to 10 percent which was way beyond the national average,” the Deputy Director in charge of Public Health, Dr Senanu Djokoto, said to Citi News.

He stressed that this was “unacceptable because one vaccine dose is $15 so if we are going to have that much expired, that is a lot of money lost for the country.”

The President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, also used his address on Wednesday, to the nation to rubbish misinformation surrounding the vaccines.

According to him, the vaccines are safe and won’t make anyone vote for the New Patriotic Party in the 2024 elections.

He thus asked Ghanaians to avail themselves to be vaccinated.

“So far, we have been able to administer only six million, four hundred and twenty thousand, nine hundred and seventy-three (6,420,973) doses out of the 17.7 million we have at our disposal. Let me state, as clearly as I can. The vaccines are safe.”

“They will not harm you. They will protect you and your family. Contrary to the mischief being peddled by some, getting vaccinated will not cause you to vote for the NPP in the 2024 elections, if you do not want to. This is an outrageous claim. Vaccination cannot change your political preferences. That is not its purpose.”