Director-General of the Ghana Health Service (GHS), Dr Patrick Kuma Aboagye has disclosed the categories of persons likely to be affected by government’s policy on mandatory vaccination in January next year.

At a press briefing on Thursday, Dr. Aboagye said “the effective date for that vaccination will be made by the Minister somewhere in January. Persons who are likely to be affected are all health workers who should be vaccinated. All security personnel should be vaccinated, all staff and students from tertiary and secondary schools should be vaccinated, all government workers are affected and all commercial drivers are affected and to encourage them that’s why we are providing vaccines."

He indicated that venues such as nightclubs, beaches, sports stadia, restaurants and government offices and hospitals will also be affected by the mandatory vaccine.

According to Dr. Aboagye, the vaccine mandate is necessary for the government to prevent the fourth wave in the country and protect the citizenry from coronavirus.

He added that per the sharp rise in the cases during the Christmas season last year, the government has introduced some measures to prevent the situation from recurring.

Some of the measures are; a 25 percent capacity for indoor events, organising outdoor events in open-air spaces amongst others.

“There are other measures that we will use to avert the surge post-Christmas. We are encouraging all persons who intend to access indoor events to get vaccinated, event organisers should encourage persons accessing such locations to get vaccinated and outdoor events in open-air spaces should be encouraged and such locations include sports stadia, football parks, outdoor events are all areas that we want to encourage.

The capacity for indoor events must not go beyond twenty–five percent of the existing capacity of that facility to ensure social distancing and we have also made our teams ready that all those organising events should invite our team to come and assist them in the setting up to ensure that the place is safe,” he said.