Senior Lecturer at the University of Ghana Business School, Dr. Gordon Abeka-Nkrumah wants the government to make adequate provisions to secure more doses of COVID-19 vaccines to ensure the country achieves herd immunity against the virus.
Dr. Gordon Abeka-Nkrumah who is also a health economist predicts the about 20% country-population doses of COVAX expected to arrive in Ghana is not enough to properly manage the rate of infections among Ghanaians.
He estimates that the COVAX distribution leaves about 40 percent of the population unattended to thereby affecting the possibility of herd immunity against the pandemic in the country.
Speaking on the Big Issue on Saturday, Dr. Gordon Abeka-Nkrumah made a strong case for state and health authorities to target administering the vaccines to about 60 percent of the entire population by making the necessary financial arrangement.
“Government is really working but the next major angle is financing. We know that within the COVAX system, it is going to be free for us, but that is just 20 percent of our requirement. For us to also get close to herd immunity, we need to do about 70 percent of the population, so I can imagine that if we want to get close to herd immunity, we should be targeting about 60 percent of our population. So if we are getting 20 percent for COVAX, then it means we are left with 40 percent. So we need to begin thinking for the financing of the 40 percent of the population. I am not too sure if we have the money for that 40 percent.”
Ghana is first expecting a batch of the COVAX vaccines to meet its target of vaccinating 20 million out of the 30 million population with the government outlining four categories of persons for the receipt of the vaccine to be administered.
The segments are frontline workers, people with some form of health risk and co-morbidities, workers who offer essential services and the arms of government and the remaining population.
President Akufo-Addo has already indicated that the government is working to procure 17 million vaccines.
The earliest batch of vaccines will be in the country by March 2021.
Targeted public education on vaccines
On the same program, former Deputy Minister, Dr. Bernard Okoe Boye underscored the need for state agencies to begin a targeted public sensitization for the roll-out of the COVID-19 vaccines in the country.
For him, government’s efforts to acquire the vaccines to slow the spread of the virus will come to nought if the right public sensitization is not provided for the population especially when the Health and Finance Ministries have put in place adequate measures to ensure Ghana receives its fair share of the consignment.
He is however worried about the unwillingness of many Ghanaians to reject any form of vaccination insisting that only proper education will ensure the needed change of mind.
“Government has not been idle for the vaccine. But I think the education must start aggressively so that we conscientize the population on the arrival of the vaccine. On my own level, I sent my assistants to the filed to try and talk to people. I just developed a simple questionnaire asking about what they know about COVID-19 and whether they are willing to take the vaccines. I am still processing the data, but you will be amazed almost everyone including the educated say they won’t take the vaccine. The education must not be wholesale but surgical, so we know who to target and the reasons to address”, he said on the Big Issue on Saturday.
Dr. Okoe Boye also mentioned that it is imperative for a more scientific idea of public perception about the vaccines in order to have a tailor-made form of education.
Providing more details on the acquisition of the vaccines, he said government is exploring several options to boost its chances of more stock adding that health officials will take advantage of the country’s already existing Expanded Program against Immunization (EPI) to improve the cold chain system for the storage of the doses.
