The Ministry of Information (MOI) is calling on the general public to debunk the fake reportage speculated by some media portal about the Government of Ghana sanctioning persons who refused to take the covid-19 vaccine.
According to the MOI, Government has neither taken nor announced any such decision.
In a communique signed by the Public Relations Officer of the Ministry of Information, Munira Karim, it said "The attention of the Ministry of Information has been drawn to a false publication by a number of reputable online portals and newspapers to the effect that Government will sanction persons who refuse to take the COVID-19 vaccine. The said reportage is false. Government has neither taken nor announced any such decision"
Madam Karim further explained that the Minister was misquoted when he responded to a question during a meet-the-press session at Peduase Lodge on Monday.
"As at now, there are no sanctions that have been rolled out. We are encouraging strongly that people should take the vaccine and we 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 hesitancy is gradually coming down and a lot more people are volunteering to take the vaccine. So we have not had a need as at now to introduce any sanctions. Should it be 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; if you haven't taken the vaccine I think in Dubai, you have to do a PCR test at your own cost every week or something; 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" she noted
She appealed to the general public to ignore such false information.
Below is a copy of the release:
Story by: Joshua Kwabena Smith