Communications Head of the Ghana Private Road Transport Union (GPRTU), Abass Imoro, has expressed the need for drivers to be convinced to get vaccinated against the COVID-19 virus and intensify education on the impact of the virus.

According to him, it has become crucial to ensure that drivers get vaccinated particularly with the entrance and recording of the highly transmissible new variant, Omicron, in the country. Mr Imoro explained that it is not enough to just compel these drivers and threaten them with a ban on driving their vehicle if they are not vaccinated.

The GPRTU Communications head emphasized the need for government to “strategize” and come up with attractive offerings for people which will invariably make them understand the need to get vaccinated.

“I think if they just come up and say you need your vaccination card to work, I don’t believe that is enough. Because this COVID came and when they started the vaccination in Europe, we were all looking for this vaccine here and it wasn’t easy to have it here. Later, we heard about so many complications about this vaccine. Now, we are told the vaccine is here, Yes, some of us, we are fortunate we’ve taken. I had the privilege to take the Johnson & Johnson which is just one shot… They need to convince people to go in for the vaccine, but telling people if you don’t have the vaccine card from next year you won’t work, I mean that is not enough. Drivers for instance, we could easily contract this disease due to the number of people we deal with daily. So, there is the need [for] us to convince our drivers so that they will go in for this vaccine”.
Mr Abass Imoro

Mr Imoro iterated that pertaining to the drivers, there is a lot of work to be done to “convince the people”, to understand the need to protect themselves and protect others.

The Ghana Health Service had initially explained that for the month of December, they are giving drivers the opportunity to get vaccinated. Commenting on this, Mr Imoro concerted to the fact that it is a good initiative. However, he noted that the Service needs to talk in a “polite way” to ensure these drivers voluntarily get vaccinated.

“As we speak now, there has been speculation of some of these vaccines and after having the vaccines there are some complications… And so, they [have] to make sure they clear the minds of Ghanaians on that. Because so many people say they’ve heard if you take the vaccine, you’ll contract certain diseases. So, they need to work a lot because this COVID issue, it started nicely and it died off. Nobody talks about COVID the way they started it”.
Mr Abass Imoro

Prior to this, an Immunologist at West African Centre for Cell Biology of Infectious Pathogens (WACCBIP), Dr Yaw Bediako, expressed confidence in the ability of the current trove of vaccines in the country to provide protection against the newly detected Omicron virus.

Dr Bediako explained that it is necessary for the Ghanaian public to engage in the vaccination drive and observe all the necessary protocol as they have done since the entrance of the COVID-19 virus.