The Ghana Medical Association (GMA) has urged the government to beef up efforts to procure more Covid-19 vaccines to prevent the country from entering into a fourth wave.

The Association says it is still unknown whether the new Omicron variant of the coronavirus can evade immunity acquired from past vaccination; hence, the need for government to reinforce its vaccination drive amid fears of a fourth wave.

With the impending Yuletide festivities, the GMA has encouraged Ghanaians to avail themselves to be inoculated against the virus while calling on the government to enhance testing at the ports.

"Government should continue with efforts to secure more vaccines for the nation. We urge government to continue all efforts at limiting importation of Covid-19 by increasing testing at the ports of entry as well as sequencing of all positive cases to enable prompt detection and containment of mutant strains such as the Omicron variant," a statement dated November 29, 2021 said.

Ghana is expected to receive more doses of the Covid-19 vaccines to meet its target of inoculating 20 million people by the end of 2021.

The Director-General of the Ghana Health Service (GHS), Dr Patrick Kuma-Aboagye stated at a press briefing on Sunday that the set of vaccines to be received include AstraZeneca, Pfizer, and Johnson and Johnson.

He revealed that the country has not recorded any case of the Omicron variant yet.

But the Ghana Medical Association has cautioned the public to strictly adhere to the safety protocols at events since the new variant appears to be more infectious than the Delta variant.

"It has been gratifying to note the downward trend of active cases of Covid-19 in Ghana that saw us record zero new cases on some days in the past few weeks and we commend all stakeholders for the efforts to achieve this feat. We, however, note with grave concern the discovery of the Omicron variant of Covid-19 in some countries in the world."

"Data available from Southern Africa shows that in the Gauteng Province, the Ro (1.93) of this variant is higher than that of the Delta variant (Ro of 1.47). This means this new variant may be potentially more infectious than even the Delta variant," the GMA added.

Meanwhile, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has instituted measures to avoid a possible global spread of the new Covid-19 variant.