Vaccine rollout: Who gets vaccinated and when

President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has named four identifiable groups which will be receiving the first batch of the AstraZeneca vaccines, which will be rolled out by the National Vaccine Deployment Plan from March 2.

“Our population has been segmented into four groups, and this will determine which section of the population gets vaccinated at a particular time," President Akufo-Addo declared during his 24th Coronavirus address.

He stated that the vaccination campaign is to be conducted in 43 districts, which are the epicentres of the pandemic in the country.

There are 25 in Greater Accra, 16 in Ashanti, and two in the Central Region. Public health officials are expected to give fuller details of the programme.

“Whilst we are, initially, concentrating on the 43 epicentre-districts, preparations are being made for the vaccination of twenty million Ghanaians through the deployment of some 12,471 vaccinators, 37,413 volunteers, and 2,079 supervisors for the entire vaccination campaign”, Akufo-Addo added.

Below is the list of priority persons

Group 1

· Persons most at risk and frontline State officials

· Healthcare workers

· Frontline security personnel

· Persons with underlying medical conditions

· Persons 60 years and above

· Frontline members of the Executive, Legislature and Judiciary

Group 2

· Other essential service providers and the rest of the security agencies

· Water and electricity supply services

· Teachers and students

· Supply and distribution of fuels

· Farmers and food value chain

· Telecommunications services

· Air traffic and civil aviation control services

· Meteorological services

· Air transport services

· Waste management services

· Media

· Public and private commercial transport services

· Police Service

· Armed Forces

· Prisons Service

· Immigration Service

· National Fire Service

· CEPS Division of the Ghana Revenue Authority

· Other members of the Executive, Judiciary, and Legislature

Group 3

This group consists of the rest of the public, that is, all persons over 18 years, except for pregnant women.

Group 4

This final group will include pregnant mothers and persons under the age of 18, and they will be vaccinated when an appropriate vaccine, hopefully, is found, or when enough safety data on the present vaccines are available according to the president.

Akufo-Addo said, “special arrangements will be made for persons with disabilities who fall within these groups.”