Alhaji Mahama Asei Seini, a Deputy Minister of Health, has indicated that vaccination cards may become mandatory for travel and mobility during the Christmas holidays.
When asked about the increase in cases outside of Ghana, Mr. Seini emphasized the necessity having immunization cards when traveling outside of the country.
Slovakia, for example, has imposed a two-week curfew, while the Czech Republic has announced a 30-day state of emergency, which includes early bar and club closures as well as a prohibition on Christmas markets.
Germany has likewise passed the 100,000-death mark due to COVID-19.
“You can’t even go and mingle with your brother to celebrate Christmas [in Ghana] if you don’t take time this Christmas, if you don’t have the card,” the deputy minister stated.
“The restrictions will come. While you want to go to Europe, you will need to show it. And when you are coming to Ghana, you will also need to show it. That is why you are encouraged to go for the vaccination and get your card,” he added.
Despite concerns about the slow rate of vaccination, Mr. Seini remains optimistic about achieving the target set by the government to vaccinate 20 million Ghanaians by the end of 2020.
He noted that “what we are observing is people don’t even want to move for the vaccines.”
In response to this, he said, more education would be required to improve the rate of vaccination.
Mr. Seini, however, added that “coverage is very high, and I think when we put out the figures, I think we will be hitting almost 10 million [people vaccinated] and above.”
So far, only 3,493,688 Ghanaians have received at least a dose of a COVID-19 vaccine.
