The government may open up the country should Greater Accra and Ashanti regions Covid-19 vaccination succeed, the Ghana Health Service (GHS) has indicated.

This, according to the GHS' Director of Public Health, Dr Franklin Asiedu Bekoe, will be an assurance that the country has broken the risk of transmission in the hotspots of the virus to make way for normalcy.

“In that case what is happening is that you are going to get less risk of transmission of the disease, and then u can start opening up the more as we want it,” he said Thursday.

Since the outbreak of the virus in Ghana in March 2020, the two regions have recorded the country's highest number of cases and deaths.

Ghana on Wednesday, February 24, secured her first batch of vaccines; AstraZeneca from the UN-assisted COVAX Facility licensed to the Serum Institute of India (AZ/SII).

Speaking on JoyNews’ PM: Express Business Edition, Dr Asiedu Bekoe said there is a need to cut off the main source of transmission of the virus with the vaccines.

He said, “the ultimate goal of the President is that all Ghanaians will be vaccinated.”

Efforts are currently underway to ensure that some 20 million out of about 31 million Ghanaians are vaccinated against the novel coronavirus by end of October 2021.

“The direction is that lets vaccine 20 million and that one gives us the head immunity that would allow us to get to where we want to get to,” the Public Health Director said.

According to him, “we cannot achieve those figures by a single source so we are looking at multiple sources, we are looking at bilateral sources and then multi-lateral sources.

The GHS Public Health Director noted that the country’s inability to achieve herd immunity will not be the best way to go.

“It is because though you may try to improve on the number of your immunised persons, there is still the risk of transmission.

"That’s why we are working in sequential form because our hot spot is in Accra and Kumasi,” he explained.

Dr Asiedu Bekoe is confident that the exemption of pregnant women, children below 16 years, people with allergies and underlying health conditions, and the aged from the Covid-19 vaccination exercise will enable Ghana to achieve the target.

He indicated that there are other plans through discussions to secure other vaccines for about 6 million Ghanaians, and also the African Medical Supply platform from the African Union (AU), “that’s also going to guarantee us another 6 million."

“For Ghana to get to normal, it’s about getting the vaccines in large numbers and in rapid time,” he hinted.

The Public Health Director, however, believes that the country is on course and hopefully we will be able to achieve our target.

Meanwhile, President Akufo-Addo will be the first to be vaccinated to assure Ghanaians that the vaccines are safe.