The Ministry of Information has urged Ghanaians to ignore publications on some online news portals suggesting that the government will sanction persons who refuse to take the Covid-19 vaccine.

According to the ministry, the report is false and should be ignored.

Clarifying what the information minister said at a press briefing in Peduase on Monday, 8 March 2021 when asked whether or not sanctions will be imposed on persons who refused the COVID-19 vaccines, the ministry quoted the sector minister as saying: “As at now, there are no sanctions that have been rolled out.

“We are encouraging strongly that people should take the vaccine and we are 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 at NCCE, ISD. As we are getting the message out, we are noticing that the hesitancy is gradually coming down and a lot more people are volunteering to take the vaccine. So, we have not had a need, as of now, to introduce sanctions.

“Should it become 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 to taking it”.

The ministry, however, encouraged Ghanaians to take the vaccine to reduce the risk of severe COVID-19 illness.