Government yet to decide on those who refuse coronavirus vaccine

The Ministry of Information has dismissed recent reports that government will mete out sanctions to persons who refuse to take the Covid-19 vaccines.

The reports emanated from a press briefing by the sector minister, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, at the Peduase Lodge last Monday when he was asked about whether or not sanctions will be meted out to persons who refused the vaccines.

He had said: “As at now, there are no sanctions that have been rolled out. We are encouraging strongly that people should take the vaccine and we are pleased that we are observing that the initial vaccine hesitancy appears to be toning down a bit and we congratulate you our colleagues in the media as you are helping us.

“We congratulate our colleagues in NCCE, ISD. As we are getting the message out, we are noticing that the hesitancy is gradually coming down and a lot more people are volunteering to take the vaccine.

“So we have not had the need as at now to introduce any sanctions. Should it become necessary at some point that we consider either what has been done I think in places like Israel or other places, where they will say if you haven’t taken the vaccine, you can’t attend a public programme. . . .Should it become necessary that we get there, we would advise accordingly but for now, we are happy at the level of encouragement and volunteering with which people are stepping up and taking it.”

The above, the Ministry said in a press release, is what has been misreported.

“The general public is advised to ignore such false publications,” the press release signed by Public Relations Officer Munira Karim on Wednesday, March 10 said.

“Ghanaians are, however, encouraged to take the vaccine to reduce the risk of severe Covid-19 illness.”